Hawaii residents who wait until the last minute to sign up for health insurance through the marketplace created under the Affordable Care Act could find themselves shut out of enrollment.
The deadline to sign up for health insurance on the HealthCare.gov website is Sunday. But for Hawaii residents the system will stop accepting applications at 10 p.m. on that day. The federal website doesn’t warn residents that they essentially need to get their applications in two hours early.
While the loss of two hours might not seem like a big deal, enrollment data from previous years indicates the final days of open enrollment are the busiest with a rush of people waiting until the last day.
U.S. Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), along with senators from Alaska, urged the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) earlier this week to extend the deadline, but agency officials have declined to do so.
On the East Coast the enrollment period will shut down at 3 a.m. Monday. Like Hawaii, Alaska also has an early deadline due to the time differential, and enrollment will end at 11 p.m. Sunday.
“Last year, about half of sign-ups occurred in the last week and the final day of open enrollment is the busiest, particularly the final hours,” wrote Hirono and Alaska Sens. Dan Sullivan (R) and Lisa Murkowski (R) in a letter Monday to Seema Verma, CMS administrator. “Given how many mainland consumers sign up in the final hours of open enrollment, it is clear that consumers assume that midnight is the deadline. It is unacceptable to take away this valuable window of time away from people simply because they live in a different state.”
A spokesman for CMS told the Honolulu Star- Advertiser on Thursday that the request “came in very late in the process” and that it couldn’t be accommodated.
Hirono said she was disappointed in the response from CMS and that it was her understanding that the agency could easily extend the deadline to accommodate Hawaii and Alaska residents through a simple computer code.
“This is on par with all the sabotage this administration does regarding the Affordable Care Act,” Hirono told the Star-Advertiser.
President Donald Trump sought to roll back Obamacare upon taking office. His administration has slashed funding for a program that helps people navigate the health insurance marketplace, cut money for advertising the program and restricted the annual enrollment period from three months to six weeks.
Those who miss the deadline for enrolling will have to wait another year to sign up. There are exceptions if you lose a job or have a baby.
Last year about 20,000 Hawaii residents signed up for plans under the Affordable Care Act or re-enrolled in their plans, according to CMS.
The marketplace was set up in 2010 to help people who don’t have employer-based coverage and don’t qualify for Medicare or Medicaid obtain health insurance through an individual plan. The federal marketplace also provides subsidies that can offset the cost of premiums or copayments.
In Hawaii, 8 out of 10 people are eligible for financial assistance, according to Hirono.
About 4% of Hawaii residents are uninsured.
Hirono said she’s hoping that CMS will provide Hawaii and Alaska residents with a special enrollment period in which they can sign up Monday during regular business hours.
