Deadline Dash: Health Care Sign-Ups Amid Glitches
There's been a flood of last-minute applicants to HealthCare.gov with the midnight deadline for enrollment just hours away.
The federal online marketplace for insurance coverage had recorded 1.2 million visitors by noon today, despite a couple of glitches. The website was out of service for nearly four hours this morning as technicians patched a software bug. Another hiccup this afternoon temporarily kept new applicants from signing up, but that too was resolved.
Officials say the system has been operating at full capacity, with more than 125,000 people at a time using it.
The White House is hoping an enrollment surge will push sign-ups to around 6.5 million people.
Among the unknowns about the enrollment numbers, however, is how many people were previously uninsured. That's considered the real test of Obama's health care overhaul.
While today is the last day officially to sign up, millions of people are potentially eligible for extensions granted by the administration.
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