Extension Granted for Those Unable to Finish Health Insurance Enrollment

With just a few days left before the March 31 deadline to sign up for health insurance, the Obama Administration announced that it will give extra time to those uninsured Americans who started to enroll in health insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplace, but were unable to complete the process.

The extension was granted because the Obama Administration foresees large volumes of people trying to sign up through Healthcare.gov.

Some states who have their own Marketplace are also seeing high traffic volumes and have began to extend the deadline for those who have started the enrollment process but were unsuccessful in completing it.

The deadline for uninsured Americans to purchase health insurance to avoid a tax penalty is still March 31, but if you began applying for health insurance and were unable to finish by the March 31 deadline, you will have until mid-April to request an extension, whether the delay was due to a website glitch or family emergency.

Under the new ruling, you can qualify for an extension by checking an option on HealthCare.gov that indicates you tried to enroll before.

Starting mid-April you may not be able to get the special extension through HealthCare.gov.

Only people with special life events, like having a baby, getting married, or losing a job will be eligible for a special enrollment period after April.

As with all tax laws, TurboTax is up to date with the latest tax law changes.  If you have more questions about the Affordable Care Act and how it impacts you and your taxes, you can get answers from TurboTax Health.