As some would imagine, the traffic on the government's website to enroll in a health insurance plan increased as the December 15th deadline for January 1st changes approached. We had clients calling the toll free number over the weekend and waiting 90 minutes to talk to a live person, and this was days BEFORE the deadline. As the traffice increased, the website had more an more problems. People couldn't complete their applications or even log in. Even the insurance companies' websites were having issues with all the traffic on Monday and Tuesday.
As a result of the problems with www.healthcare.gov, the Government has extended the deadline to December 17th to make changes to your plan effective on January 1st. keep in mind that Open Enrollment continues through the end of January. So individuals will have until January 31st to enroll in a plan that they can keep for the rest of the year. But the 15th of the month is the deadline for changes the following 1st of the month.... December 15th (now 17th) for changes as of January 1st; January 15th for changes February 1st; and the end of January for changes March 1st.
My suggestion to anyone applying: DON'T WAIT TIL THE LAST MINUTE! AND IF YOU DO, EXPECT PROBLEMS!
Happy Holidays!