WASHINGTON — The Obama administration said Wednesday that people who obtained health insurance by March 31 would not face any tax penalties for being uninsured in the first three months of 2014.
Under President Obama's health care law, most Americans will be required to have insurance next year, and they may be subject to tax penalties if they go without coverage.
People can sign up for insurance during a six-month open enrollment period that is scheduled to end on March 31. Under an earlier official interpretation of the law, people would have needed to sign up by Feb. 15 to avoid tax penalties.
The administration said it was working on a policy to match up the deadlines. In effect, the administration is extending the February deadline by six weeks so that it coincides with the end of the enrollment period.
"The administration is working to align those policies and will issue guidance soon," an administration official said Wednesday. "This guidance will ensure that if you sign up for insurance by the end of March, you will not face a penalty."
Without knowing the intricacies of the federal law and regulations, many consumers had assumed that they would be in compliance if they bought insurance by March 31. The administration is tweaking federal policy to match those expectations.
White House officials said their action was different from the type of relief being sought for other reasons by some members of Congress.
Because of technical problems in the Web site for the federal insurance marketplace, many Americans have been unable to buy insurance, obtain federal subsidies or compare the available health plans.
In view of these problems, some lawmakers say that Mr. Obama should extend the open enrollment period, delay the tax penalties or at least grant exemptions to people who have tried unsuccessfully to use the insurance Web site.
The White House has resisted such demands, saying that Mr. Obama hopes that the Web site will be fixed soon so consumers can use it more easily.
But if the problems persist, Democrats are likely to join Republicans in seeking some relief for consumers so that they are not punished for failures of the government.
Extending the enrollment period might help consumers but could be politically embarrassing for the White House, which sees the health care law as Mr. Obama's greatest legislative accomplishment.
The requirement for people to have insurance is a crucial part of the law, intended to induce large numbers of healthy people to enroll and pay premiums needed to cover the cost of care for older and less healthy subscribers.
In July, Mr. Obama abruptly announced that he would delay by one year, until 2015, enforcement of the law's requirement that larger employers offer health insurance to full-time employees.
Republicans say similar relief should be granted to individuals.
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