- Health Law Sign-up Deadline Extended for Some People AP — After a rush of last-minute sign-ups, the Trump administration says it's extending the deadline for some people to finish health insurance applications for next year under the Affordable Care Act. Callers to the HealthCare.gov service center on Saturday morning got a recorded message saying "don't worry" — if they'd called and left their phone number before the deadline, they'll get a call back and still can enroll for 2018. HealthCare.gov issued similar extensions previously under the Obama administration. Although the deadline has passed for most consumers in the 39 states served by HealthCare.gov, several states running their own enrollment websites have longer deadlines. Also, longer sign-up periods are available on HealthCare.gov for people in special circumstances, including those affected by this year's hurricanes.
- Obamacare Expected to Suffer Enrollment Decline as Trump Cuts Timeframe The Hill by Rachel Roubein and Jessie Hellmann — Fewer people are expected to sign up for Obamacare coverage ahead of Friday's deadline to enroll in the exchanges. The Trump administration's abbreviated enrollment period has left advocates acknowledging the numbers are almost surely going to be lower than the 9.2 million who signed up on HealthCare.gov at the end of the last open enrollment season. It's not clear how much the numbers will drop.…"The open enrollment period is shorter than prior years, so the pace of enrollment has to be more rapid for us to even have stable enrollment in the program," said Dan Mendelson, president of Avalere, a health-care consulting company in Washington, D.C. "If you normalize for the fact that it's a shorter period, sign-ups are running behind for what they were last year.