[caption id=”attachment_111599″ align=”aligncenter” width=”1437″] (Associated Press)
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The Obama administration has hired 40 percent more people to prepare for a “big surge” of Obamcare sign-ups in the final week ahead of the 2015 deadline.
About 14,000 people are running call centers across the country to help people enroll in health insurance through Healthcare.gov, The Hill reported.
Kevin Counihan, the CEO of HealthCare.gov, warned of a “big, big surge” but told The Hill that the administration is prepared.
“Our system is stable. We’ve got call center support,” he said. “That being said, we think it’s in everyone’s interest, particularly the consumer’s interest, that they don’t do things that I do, which is to wait until the last minute. Actually get in early, shop and compare.”
“Consumers need to treat Feb. 15 as their last chance to get coverage for the year,” Andy Slavitt, the acting administrator of Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services told the news outlet.
The Obama administration reported that about 9.9 million people have signed up for health coverage through Obamacare since the law’s second open enrollment period began in November. This is well ahead of the 9.1 million figure they were originally hoping for.
This could be attributed to the fact that the tax penalties for those without insurance have kicked in this year and people are started to be penalized for being without insurance.
