Jan. 8 (Bloomberg) — Two of the largest U.S. health carriers are giving Obamacare customers more time to pay their initial premiums as the industry tries to coax millions of people to take the final step in cementing coverage for 2014.
WellPoint Inc., the country's second-biggest health carrier, said it's allowing consumers until Jan. 15 to pay, five extra days than planned. Health Care Service Corp., which runs Blue Cross plans in Texas, Illinois and three other states, extended its deadline to Jan. 30, saying it wanted to avoid confusion.
Insurers and the Obama administration have repeatedly moved deadlines, relaxed sign-up rules and made other concessions to smooth the process for people who are getting new health coverage this year as part of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The industry had already pushed back the premium deadline from late December until Jan. 10, following website outages that depressed sign-ups last year.
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