WASHINGTON – The Obama administration is granting more time for people to apply for health care if they started the process but were unable to complete it before the March 31 deadline.
Health and Human Service spokesman Aaron Albright said Tuesday night the administration will be ready to help people quote “in line” by the deadline finish their applications, either online or over the phone.
The White House had hinted last week such a grace period was in the works.
The administration is racing to sign up at least 6 million people in the new health insurance markets offering subsidized private coverage.
Earlier Tuesday, a federal appeals court grappled with another issue crucial to the success of President Barack Obama’s health-care law, debating whether the government can subsidize premiums for people who buy insurance on exchanges run by Washington.
In a blunt assessment of the health overhaul and challengers to the Affordable Care Act, Judge A. Raymond Randolph described the launch of the act as “an unmitigated disaster” while Judge Harry Edwards said opponents of the law are seeking “to destroy the individual mandate and gut the statute.” The mandate is the requirement that nearly everyone has health insurance.
The third judge on the appeals court panel, Thomas Griffith, expressed skepticism over the administration’s argument that the subsidies are available regardless of whether people buy insurance on a state-run or federally facilitated exchange.
The exchanges in the Obama administration’s signature domestic program are of crucial importance because most states have been unable or unwilling to set up their own exchanges. As a result, the federal government has stepped in to take the lead in 36 states.
In the case before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, a group of small business owners says the law authorizes tax credits only for people who buy insurance on exchanges established by the states.
The business owners are challenging an Internal Revenue Service regulation based on the act that says the tax credits are available to all qualifying individuals, regardless of whether they buy insurance at the state level or federally.
The case revolves around four words in the law, which says the tax credits are available to people who enrolled through an exchange “established by the state.”
The Affordable Care Act provides a federal tax credit for low- and middle-income people through the exchanges, a setup designed to achieve the law’s goal of widespread, affordable health care.
The lawsuit is one of a myriad of legal challenges to the health care law.
Edwards is an appointee of President Jimmy Carter; Randolph is an appointee of President George H.W. Bush; and Griffith is an appointee of President George W. Bush.
