Deadline day arrives for health care enrollment

LOS ANGELES (KABC) -- Sunday is the deadline to sign up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act.

Those who still need to enroll have until midnight to sign up through the Covered California or the federal government websites.

The health care law offers health insurance to people who don't have coverage on the job. Covered California says those who aren't signed up by Feb. 15 risk not having health coverage for the rest of the year.

Dignity Health Hospital in downtown Los Angeles will hold a last-minute enrollment help event from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Sunday.

In East Los Angeles, AltaMed health services and Covered California teamed up to enroll Southern Californians. It's part of a major push to get people signed up before the deadline.

"This is a deadline we don't want people to miss, because going without insurance put them at risk, not just for big medical bills, but for not finding the condition early and not getting the free preventive care," said Peter Lee, executive director of Covered California. "It's affordable, and if people kick the tires, they can find out at CoveredCA.com how affordable it is."

A technical problem that had been interfering with sign-ups on the federal government's HealthCare.gov website has been fixed. The problem popped up the day before the Sunday deadline to sign up for subsidized private health insurance. It had been intermittent, meaning some people were able to complete their applications and submit them, Health and Human Service Department spokeswoman Katie Hill said.

By Saturday night, the problem had been resolved, Hill said in a statement. Consumers affected by the problem should log in to their Marketplace account and click on their 2015 application to finish it and complete their enrollment for health coverage, she said.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.