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President Obama has made yet another change to his signature issue and extended the healthcare deadline for individuals who were unable to enroll by the March 31st deadline.

Now individuals who cannot enroll by the deadline have until mid-April to ask for an extension.  All one has to do is to check a box on the healthcare website indicating they tried to obtain health care and the government won’t try to verify if an attempt was made. 

Administration officials have stated they are going to base this strictly on an honor system for compliance.  

I have written many articles regarding the March 31st deadline and Obamacare and it seems to be a redundant topic.   To continually write on the same issue and regurgitated the same articles, can be unnecessary, but unfortunately the issue still remains.

With a stroke of the pen the president extended the healthcare deadline, but the real question which never gets asked; how does this affect the solvency of the Affordable Care Act?

No one seems to know!  With this expected change how does this affect insurance premiums?  Healthcare providers have routinely been recalculating their business model every time the president decides to make a sudden change to the law.

Now we should not feel sorry for the healthcare providers, who only have themselves to blame.  They wanted this law; they saw the potential for record profits and potential new customers; now they must reap what they sow.

One has to remember if you change or delay one aspect of the law it affects all other components of the Affordable Care Act.  Why did the president decided to change the deadline?  Was it politics?

Health and Human Services Department spokeswoman stated, “We are experiencing a surge in demand and are making sure that we will be ready to help consumers who may be in line by the deadline to complete enrollment — either online or over the phone.”

Senator Harry Reid has a baffling explanation to why the president changed the deadline.  “We have hundreds of thousands of people who tried to sign up and they didn’t get through.”

Reid continued, “There are some people who are not like my grandchildren who can handle everything so easily on the Internet, and these people need a little extra time. … The example they gave us is a 63-year-old woman came into the store and said, ‘I almost got it. Every time I just about got there, it would cut me off.’ We have a lot of people just like this through no fault of the Internet, but

[because] people are not educated on how to use the Internet.”

As you would expect Republican House Speaker John Boehner reacted by calling any Obamacare deadline as “meaningless,” continuing, “The administration is now resorting to an honor system to enforce it. What the hell is this, a joke?”

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell joined other Republican leaders in their outrage on yet another delay to the laws implementation, “The administration has now handed out so many waivers, special favors and exemptions to help Democrats out politically … it’s basically become the legal equivalent of Swiss cheese.”

The real question which I have routinely raised in the past and with all the exemptions, and delays, what is the real cost of the Affordable Care Act?

Will premiums be going up on the rest of us to cover the cost of those individuals who failed to sign up by the deadline?

These are a few of the questions Congress needs to be asking.  This is not a Republican or Democrat issue, but an American problem!

We still do not have a full accounting of the demographics on who has actually enrolled and completed the entire process through to completion by paying their first premium.

This delay only adds to the specter of politics in the entire process, as both Democrats and Republicans are looking at November’s mid-term election and with it the control of the U.S. Senate.