Half the Uninsured Say They’ll Stay Uninsured

New poll numbers suggest the challenge the Obama administration
faces as Obamacare’s open enrollment period draws to a close. Half
of the uninsured say they plan to remain uninsured, according to a

new poll from the Kaiser Family Foundation. And 60 percent
don’t know when the sign-up deadline is.

Here’s the chart:

Two thirds of the uninsured, meanwhile, say they haven’t tried
to get coverage yet. 

Numbers like these may help explain why the administration chose
to extend Obamacare’s open enrollment period. A sizable segment of
the uninsured population is clearly not paying too much attention
to the deadline details. With more time, it may be that the
administration hopes to be able reach some of those people.

But there’s also a risk that the extension, which comes via a
special enrollment period for people who claim they had trouble
signing up before, may simply add to the existing uncertainty. If
lots of uninsured people didn’t know about the deadline before,
then extending it, while pretending not to extend it, might just
confuse them further.