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The White House on
Wednesday defended extending some enrollments for health
insurance under the Affordable Care Act past a March 31
deadline, saying doing so was comparable to allowing voters who
are in line when polls close to cast their ballots.

The administration late on Tuesday granted an extension
until mid-April to people who say they have started to apply for
coverage through the HealthCare.gov website but are unable to
complete the process before the deadline.

"We expect there to be increasing numbers as the deadline
approaches," White House spokesman Jay Carney said.

The administration expects criticism of the extension "by
those who want to deny Americans quality, affordable health
insurance, and want to put insurance companies back in control,"
he told reporters traveling with the president to Europe. "But
we'll take that as it comes."

Critics of the 2010 healthcare law, best known by its
nickname of Obamacare, and of President Barack Obama's
management of it, were scathing in their comments about the
delay, the latest in a series of extensions due mostly to the
complexity of complying with the law.

"What the hell is this? A joke?" House of Representatives
Speaker John Boehner asked at a news conference. Boehner faulted
the administration for arbitrarily changing the rules of the law
in mid-course.

Carney said allowing people to complete their applications
past the deadline was not an unheard-of accommodation.

"The only thing that has changed is that those individuals
who have begun the process of applying online by the deadline,
which remains March 31st, will be able to ensure that they can
complete the process," he said. "If you're in line before the
polls close, you get to vote."

HealthCare.gov was overwhelmed by technical glitches for
much of last October and November, the first two months of
Obamacare's six-month enrollment period. Most of those bugs have
been worked out and as of March 17 more than 5 million people
had signed up for private coverage through the federal site and
14 state-run marketplaces.

Still, polls show overall attitudes toward the law are
negative. Republicans, who have steadfastly opposed Obamacare
and sought to block it or weaken it, expect to take advantage of
its unpopularity as they try to regain control of the Senate
from Democrats in November elections.

(Reporting by Mark Felsenthal, Jeff Mason aboard Air Force One
and Steve Holland in Brussels; Editing by Ken Wills)