GWEN IFILL: Tonight, we get the latest on the health care exchanges and why the Obama administration is giving people another day to sign up. The deadline for new coverage that would take effect on January 1 was supposed to be midnight tonight, but the administration quietly pushed it back. That decision came as White House officials announced President Obama has himself signed up for a health plan. <\/p>\n
Alex Wayne covers health care for Bloomberg News, and he joins us now. <\/p>\n
So, what is the real reason that this is being pushed back, Alex? <\/p>\n
ALEX WAYNE, Bloomberg News: Sure. <\/p>\n
Well, the website the federal government has to sell insurance to people who need it saw more than a million visitors just today. And a lot of those visitors probably ran into the same screen that I ran into when I tried it a few times throughout the day, which was basically a holding screen that said very politely, look, we have too much traffic right now. Please wait until there's less traffic. And if you would give us an e-mail address, we will send you an e-mail in a few hours and you can come back when traffic subsides and sign up. <\/p>\n
They don't want these people to go away without coverage. They want to make sure that all those people get the coverage they came to the website expecting to sign for. And so they are giving really everybody in the country another day, not just the folks who visit today. <\/p>\n
RELATED INFORMATION <\/p>\n
Health coverage deadlines changed to prevent insurance gaps <\/p>\n
GWEN IFILL: So as long as you were there today and as long as you registered and got this -- signed up for this e-mail... <\/p>\n
ALEX WAYNE: Yes. <\/p>\n
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Read more from the original source: <\/p>\n
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