No payment extension in Calif.

Customers who buy insurance policies through Covered California won’t be getting extra time to make their first premium payments.

The deadline for payments on policies that begin Jan. 1 remains Jan. 6, Covered California said. The 6th already reflects an extension for California.

Meanwhile, Covered California said all systems were go for the Dec. 23 signup deadline, and it has the amount of previously filed paper applications under control. “From our perspective, we do not have a backlog of paper apps,” executive director Peter Lee said Dec. 19.

The insurers trade group America’s Health Insurance Plans said Dec. 18 its members were voluntarily extending the deadline for consumers to pay their first month’s premium to Jan. 10, with coverage retroactive to Jan. 1.

The “one-time change” was designed “to help protect consumers from potential gaps in their coverage caused by the ongoing technical problems with healthcare.gov.” The Covered California web site has remained relatively glitch free, at least compared with the disastrous launch of the federal Obamacare site.

“The short time period in which to complete these steps, particularly around the holidays, combined with the ongoing technical issues with healthcare.gov have raised concerns that some consumers’ coverage may not be able to begin on Jan. 1,” the insurers group said.

Meanwhile, only about 20 percent of Blue Shield customers who were eligible to extend their outdated policies did, according to the Los Angeles Times. Blue Shield of California said about 15,000 policyholders out of 80,000 responded to the offer of a three-month extension. Insurance policies that don’t meet the state’s version of Obamacare’s essential health benefits were to be terminated Jan. 1, but several large insurers failed to give adequate notice of cancellations and agreed to the extensions.

Covered California did not go along with President Obama’s make-good policy allowing yearlong extensions.

Open enrollment for Covered California policies continues through the end of March.