Affordable Care Act

With less than a week until the open enrollment period closes, three of the four call centers servicing Access Health CT were offline during peak hours on Monday because of the weekend’s winter weather, according to a press release from the health care exchange.

Connecticut’s health insurance exchange plans to get tougher on those seeking to sign up for private insurance coverage outside the open enrollment period, following concerns that people signing up midyear have been driving up costs for insurers.

Just over 100,000 people are signed up to receive private insurance coverage as of Jan. 1through Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange. But exchange officials expressed concern that thousands of current customers could lose their coverage or the federal tax credits that discount their premiums.

About 2,200 current customers of Connecticut’s health insurance exchange won’t be eligible for discounted coverage next year because they did not file tax returns for 2014 as required, exchange officials said Thursday.