Tracking ObamaCare: As enrollment deadline nears, law endures 28 delays and counting
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As the administration touts the benefits of ObamaCare in a push to sign up more people before the March deadline, a FoxNews.com review shows how much of the law has really been pushed off.
Since its inception, provisions of the law have been delayed a total of 28 times; the average delay was six months and three weeks. Put another way, the cumulative delays add up to an astonishing 15 years and three months.
The administration has been announcing changes to the law at a fairly steady clip.
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The White House's latest delay was rolled out on Feb. 10, and allowed companies with between 50 and 99 workers to skirt the mandate to provide health care until 2016.
Of the White House's 28 delays to the law, 13 have been set to last at least one year. Eight revisions last a month or more. The shortest delay, announced in December 2013, gave Americans one extra day to purchase coverage that would begin on Jan. 1, 2014 through HealthCare.gov. Ultimately, that delay was extended to a vague "more time."
Who Fares Worst?
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In some cases, groups most loyal to President Obama have fared poorly under the law's recent delays.
While 71 percent of Latinos voted in 2012 for Obama, Spanish-speakers needed to wait over two months for their version of HealthCare.gov, Cuidadodesalud.gov. In September 2013, the White House said Spanish-speakers would need to wait just three to four more weeks. The White House is still facing complaints that the site was not translated correctly.
The Longest Delay
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Americans who work at companies employing 50-99 workers in the 36 states that use HealthCare.gov expected their employers to be required to offer them health insurance on Jan. 1, 2014.
After a pair of one-year delays, they will be guaranteed work-provided insurance -- but only in 2016. The owners of those small businesses aren't faring well under the delays either -- the launch date for their federal exchange site, Small Business Health Options Program (SHOP), was pushed back to November 2015 in late 2013.
When Does it End?
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Only one of the 28 delays doesn't have an end-date announced by the White House. On Dec. 24, 2013, more time was offered to those who wanted to sign up for coverage that would start in 2014 but could not because of HealthCare.gov's glitches. The deadline to choose January coverage was originally Dec. 23, but the last day to sign up for coverage retroactive to January has not been declared -- other than March 31, the scheduled final day to choose a plan for this coverage year.
Democrats and the Health Care Law
Thirteen Senate Democrats, or over a quarter of the caucus, have openly distanced themselves from the law's rollout. Those Democrats have largely been in favor of further delays or extensions, staving off the law's regulations. Since the October rollout, no Democrat has introduced legislation to bar the White House's delays, which would in turn speed along the rollout.
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All changes to the law directed by the White House have slackened the Affordable Care Act's original intent and regulation start-dates.
If no additional delays are pushed beyond 2016, Obama is set to see the law fully implemented for no more than one quarter of his time in office.