WASHINGTON — With the midnight deadline approaching Monday to sign up for ObamaCare, the administration extended it by 24 hours to Christmas Eve.
“This is similar concept as Election Day: If you are in line when the polls close, you still get to vote,” an administration official said.
Officials insisted the new deadline wasn’t due to problems with the Web site, HealthCare.gov — though the site again experienced jams and backups as people tried to log on before it was too late.
The 24-hour extension was just the latest example of the White House postponing deadlines as it struggles with the botched rollout of the law and scrambles to convince Americans to sign up.
Last week, the Obama administration announced that consumers whose insurance plans were cancelled could receive a one-year exemption from the tax penalty for not having insurance.
The administration even begged insurers to give customers more time to make a first premium payment to have insurance Jan. 1.
New York also extended the deadline for its state-run health exchange until midnight Tuesday to get insurance coverage to start Jan. 1.
The uninsured still have until the end of the first open-enrollment period on March 31 to get ObamaCare and avoid a tax penalty in 2014. But the insurance will not take effect for about a month after signing up.
Meanwhile, the political damage from ObamaCare keeps spreading. A Democratic candidate for governor in deep-blue Maryland, state Attorney General Doug Gansler, slammed the botched rollout of the state-run exchange as akin to “a ‘Saturday Night Live’ skit.”
Gansler’s jab was aimed directly at Maryland Lt. Gov. Anthony Brown, a fellow Democrat who spearheaded ObamaCare implementation in the state and is the front-runner for governor.
The Democratic infighting underscored how unpopular President Obama’s signature law has become. A new CNN/ORC International poll showed support for ObamaCare plunging to a new low, with 35 percent supporting the law and 62 percent opposing it.
President Obama did not have any trouble signing up over the weekend. But, then, he didn’t use a Web site.
Obama, who is spending Christmas with his family in Hawaii, sent a staffer “in person” to enroll him at the DC exchange, according to a White House aide.
Obama selected a low-cost bronze plan, but will not use it because he receives medical care from the military, as have previous presidents.
The White House called the sign up “symbolic.”
“He was pleased to participate in a plan as a show of support for these marketplaces, which are providing quality, affordable health-care options to more than a million people,” a White House official said.