Unless HealthCare.gov meets its deadline at the end of November, Senator Al Franken (D., Minn.) wants lawmakers to consider pushing back the enrollment date. He could join six Democratic senators who are already supporting a bill that would extend the enrollment period by two months from its original date of March 31, 2014.
“I think then we have to consider extending the deadline for the mandate [in the event that the website is not fixed in time], but let’s hope that doesn’t happen,” he told MinnPost.
Some experts have doubted that the White House will be able to meet the November 30 deadline for HealthCare.gov, pointing to the website’s vast array of problems. Last week, the administration stated that its goal is for 80 percent of users to be able to enroll on the federal marketplace.
As for President Obama’s recent “fix” that would allow people with canceled plans to potentially renew them, Franken said he’s “making sure that [people who have lost their plans] can find the absolute best policy” on the state’s exchange marketplace. Earlier this week, Minnesota governor Mark Dayton announced that the state would not accept the president’s “fix.”
Franken is up for reelection in 2014 and, while he is currently generally considered to be able to hold the seat, Republicans are hoping to make the race more competitive in light of the political fallout over the health-care law.
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