WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Wednesday expanded the list of people who could sign up for health insurance after the deadline, announcing "special enrollment periods" for legal immigrants, victims of domestic violence and tens of thousands of people who experienced various problems trying to complete their applications for coverage.
Administration officials said that the expected surge in applications ahead of next week's deadline to sign up for coverage had led to high traffic on the federal insurance website, which "could potentially keep consumers from completing the enrollment process despite their efforts to meet the deadline" at 11:59 p.m. Monday.
"Any consumer who comes in after April 1 will have to attest to the fact that they were in line and eligible to continue their enrollment," said Julie Bataille, a spokeswoman at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which is running the federal insurance exchange. "We are not going to shut the door on those people who want coverage and have come in and tried to get it."
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The White House outlined the new policy in informal guidance that appears to give federal officials and caseworkers vast discretion to grant or deny requests for special enrollment periods.
On Tuesday, Ms. Bataille said, there were more than 1.2 million visits to HealthCare.gov and more than 390,000 telephone calls to the federal insurance marketplace.
In guidance sent to insurance companies Wednesday, the administration said that "C.M.S. will provide consumers who tried to enroll during the open enrollment period, but did not complete the process by March 31, a limited amount of additional time to finish the application and enrollment process."
In most cases, if consumers are granted a special enrollment period, they will have 60 days to select a health plan, officials said. Those who finish their applications by April 15 and pay their initial premiums will be eligible for coverage starting May 1.
In a separate bulletin, the administration listed 10 types of special enrollment periods for people with "complex cases." These will be available to people who were "enrolled in the wrong plan against their wishes"; victims of domestic abuse; indigent legal immigrants who were improperly denied coverage or subsidies; families with twins who were not allowed to sign up together; and people whose applications for Medicaid were not properly transferred between federal and sta te agencies.
People whose federal file "contains defective or missing data which makes the insurance company unable to enroll the consumer" will be offered extra time to sign up, as will people whose enrollment was hindered by unspecified computer system errors, something of a catchall.
Administration officials said they did not know how many consumers would qualify for the extra time. About 20,000 people requested this kind of relief when it was authorized in late December, for people seeking coverage on Jan. 1 of this year, they said.
Robert E. Zirkelbach, a spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans, a trade group, praised the administra tion's latest effort to maximize the number of people signing up for coverage. But he added: "The new special open enrollment period needs to be limited to a defined period of time with a clear end date. This helps ensure that there is an incentive for people to enroll."
Moreover, Mr. Zirkelbach said, a firm deadline is needed "so that health plans know who is covered as they develop and submit premiums for next year."
Graphic: Health Exchange Enrollment Remains at 75 Percent of Target
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Reaction split on Wednesday along predictable partisan lines.
Representative Cathy McMorris Rodgers of Washington, a member of the House Republican leadership, said, "The administration has, yet again, unilaterally decided not to enforce its own law," and she asked, "When does this get ridiculous?"
But Sena tor Sherrod Brown, Democrat of Ohio, said the administration was right to stretch the deadline for people who had begun to sign up and not completed their applications. "The whole point is to get as many people as we legally can," Mr. Brown said.
In a related move, the White House said on Wednesday that it would allow victims of domestic abuse to obtain tax subsidies for health insurance without having to file joint tax returns with their spouses.
"Individuals who are legally married are generally required to file a joint income tax return to claim the premium tax credit," said Mark J. Mazur, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy. But he said, "For victims of domestic abuse, getting in contact with a spouse for purposes of filing a joint ret urn may be traumatic, dangerous or prohibited by a restraining order."
Accordingly, the Treasury announced a new policy, "A married individual who is living apart from his or her spouse, and who is unable to file a joint return as a result of domestic abuse, will be permitted to claim a premium tax credit for 2014" while filing a separate tax return.
The White House says that more than five million people have selected private health plans in the federal and state exchanges, but federal officials say they do not know how many have completed the enrollment process by paying premiums.
Republicans challenged that assertion and said that insurers w ere submitting monthly reports to the government showing how many people had "effectuated enrollment" by paying their first month's premiums.
Joanne Peters, a spokeswoman for the Department of Health and Human Services, confirmed that the agency had received payment information from insurers, but said it was "neither final nor complete."
"When we have accurate and reliable data regarding premium payments," she said, "we will make that information available."
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