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Sign Up Surge Expected On Final Day To Get Subsidized Health Insurance This Year

By Pat Loeb

PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- This is the final day of open enrollment for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act for this year. Federal health officials expect a busy day on the insurance marketplace website.

A warning for uninsured procrastinators who don't like easy-listening hold music -- you are going to hear a lot of it today, if you call the federal exchange for help enrolling in a health care plan. But federal officials urge you to stay on the line, because if you miss the midnight deadline, you won't be able to sign up for subsidized coverage until November, and you may end up owing a penalty on your taxes for remaining uninsured, unless you have some life-changing event that qualifies you for special enrollment.

Also, low-income uninsured people, seeking to enroll in Pennsylvania's newly-expanded Medicaid program can sign up any time.

You can enroll online through healthcare.gov, and the region's largest insurer, Independence Blue Cross, is offering in-person assistance this afternoon until 5 p.m. in the lobby of its 19th and Market Streets headquarters.

Vice president Paula Sunshine says Blue Cross expects to hit its new member targets, though she declined to say what they are. Federal health officials say, nationally, they're expecting more than 10-million people will have signed up by midnight.

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