Healthcare.gov Issues Arise One Day Before Obamacare Deadline

UPDATE 10:30 p.m. EDT: The Department of Health and Human Services said it has resolved a problem that was keeping people for signing up for health care coverage on the HealthCare.gov website with the deadline for March 1 coverage just hours away. Reuters reported it took officials six hours to fix the problem, which involved the income verification portion of the application. The department encouraged consumers to go back into the website and finish the application process.

Original post:

Sunday’s deadline for 2015 coverage health care coverage is looming, but people can’t submit applications on Healthcare.gov. The problem comes less than a day before this year’s deadline.

A number of people contacted International Business Times to complain the problem was making it impossible to submit applications in states like Pennsylvania and Oregon. The Department of Health and Human Services says the problem is being caused by issues verifying the incomes people report on the site.

"Some consumers have been unable to submit their application because their income is unable to be verified as a result of intermittent issues with external verification sources. Our team is working hard to resolve this issue quickly. Regardless, consumers who have already submitted their application are able to select a plan and enroll.," Healthcare Press Secretary Katie Hill told IBTimes in an email. "Those consumers who are visiting HealthCare.gov for the first time can create their account, look at the plans available in their area with the window shopping tool and start their applications and save progress along the way. Any consumer who is trying to get covered ahead of the deadline for March 1 coverage will be able to do so."

People having problems will se a yellow box that helps them save their application, Hill said. Users who see it should save it, then try again later.

The hiccup comes one day before the Feb. 15 deadline to sign up for health insurance through the Obamacare website. An error message that people who could not submit an application read that the department was hoping to fix the error within 24 hours.

A message also appeared on the site explaining the issue:

There's still time to enroll in health coverage! If you start an application today, you might not be able to submit it right away because of some temporary systems issues that are preventing us from verifying your information. But you can still create an account, start an application and follow the steps. If you can’t submit your completed application, just save it. If you do, we'll make sure you can return later to finish and enroll for March 1 coverage. If you've submitted your application already, you can continue to select a plan and enroll today.

Additional reporting by Dion Rabouin and Morgan Winsor