A woman looks at the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange internet site October 1, 2013 in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly called, passed in March 2010, went into effect Tuesday at 8am EST. Heavy Internet traffic and system problems plagued the launch of the new health insurance exchanges Tuesday morning. Consumers attempting to log on were met with an error message early Tuesday due to an overload of Internet traffic. A woman looks at the HealthCare.gov insurance exchange internet site October 1, 2013 in Washington, DC. US President Barack Obama’s Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare as it is commonly called, passed in March 2010, went into effect Tuesday at 8am EST. Heavy Internet traffic and system problems plagued the launch of the new health insurance exchanges Tuesday morning. Consumers attempting to log on were met with an error message early Tuesday due to an overload of Internet traffic. AFP PHOTO / Karen BLEIER (Photo credit should read KAREN BLEIER/AFP/Getty Images)
Photo: Karen Bleier,KAREN BLEIER/AFP/GEtty Images
It’s hardly the year-long delay Republicans had fought for during the government shutdown, but the Obama administration announced on Monday it would move back the deadline to sign up for coverage by six weeks, to March 31. It was a move the White House had teased as a tweak to Obamacare, but not one born of the website’s troubles. Rather, this fixes an entirely different problem between the deadline to sign up and the penalty for going uncovered. If only patching up the website was so easy.
