Deadline for ACA Health Insurance extended till December 19 citing heavy rush

The deadline for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Insurance has been extended by four days till December 19. The announcement of the extension was made by the federal health officials on Thursday night citing heavy rush of consumers. The consumers can now sign up for coverage beginning Jan. 1 through ACA marketplaces till Monday night.

This announcement is the second in row when the federal health officials have granted the consumers a little extra time beyond the Dec. 15 deadline. The Chief Executive of the ACA's Health Insurance Marketplace within the federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, Kevin Counihan, said that the decision was taken in view of the "extraordinary volume of consumers" contacting call centers or visiting HealthCare.gov, the website for the federal insurance exchange, The Washington Post reported.

"Nearly a million consumers have left their contact information to hold their place in line," Healthcare.gov CEO said in a statement late Thursday. "Our goal is to provide affordable coverage to everyone seeking it before the deadline, and these two additional business days will give consumers an opportunity to come back and complete their enrollment for January 1 coverage," USA TODAY reported.

By the start of this week, about 4 million people had signed up for ACA health plans, the CMS officials said on Wednesday. Tens of thousands of Americans are in the process of getting the coverage, said Counihan. The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services decided that giving people more time was far more preferable than angering them if they couldn't get insurance because they couldn't get through.

The new Healthcare.gov deadline for Jan. 1 coverage is now 11:59 pm PT on Dec. 19. The final deadline is Jan. 31 for 2017 coverage. ACA insurance sales for 38 states that don't run their own exchanges are handled by Healthcare.gov.