ACA exchanges push back Jan. 1 coverage signup deadline

Managers of many Affordable Care Act public exchange programs are giving consumers a little more time to sign up for individual major medical coverage that starts Jan. 1.

Related: ACA exchanges near major 2017 signup deadline

HealthCare.gov, a federal exchange enrollment system that serves 39 states without their own enrollment systems, has postponed its deadline for Jan. 1 coverage to this coming Monday, from Thursday.

Managers of Covered California are also pushing its deadline to Monday.

The managers say their signup activity has been strong, but they are reporting the data in formats that make creating year-over-year activity level comparisons difficult.

In related news, one state-based ACA exchange, Denver-based Connect for Health Colorado, says it generated an operating profit for the first five months of its fiscal year, which started in July.

The company averaged 139,318 paid-up users, or 11 percent more than it expected, and it also collected bills more quickly.