SHHH! Obama Secretly Moved Back Another Obamacare Deadline

Today was supposed to be the deadline to sign up for Obamacare and still have ones health insurance start on January first.  WaPo is reporting that the most transparent administration in history moved back the deadline a day without telling anybody. While 24 hours is not a big deal, it is just another example of the lack of transparency of the Obama administration:

...without any public announcement, Obama administration officials have changed the rules so that people will have an extra day to enroll, according to two individuals with knowledge of the switch.

Over the weekend, government officials and outside IT contractors working on the online marketplace’s computer system made a software change that automatically gives people a Jan. 1 start date for their coverage as long as they enroll by 11:59 p.m. Christmas Eve.

The switch is the most recent rule change — some by government officials, and at least one by the insurance industry — as a milestone approaches for what has been a tumultuous three-month start of the long-awaited opportunity for Americans to buy new health plans under a 2010 law intended to reshape the nation’s health-care system.

The purpose of the extra day is as a fail safe in case the Web site has trouble if a last-minute surge of insurance-seekers proved more than the computer system could handle.

According to the two individuals, both of whom spoke on condition of anonymity about a matter that is not public, the one-day extension is automatic, built into the software, and cannot be overridden by individual insurers if they object.

Asked to explain the reason for the extension — and why it has been kept secret — officials at the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the federal agency overseeing the health exchange, did not immediately respond.

HealthCare.gov still has a large  notice in large letters that said, “Enroll by Dec. 23 for coverage starting as soon as Jan. 1. (See the Above version which I corrected).

UPDATE:  Now that it has been exposed, the White House has announced the move.