Obamacare deadline extended until tonight: Healthcare.gov site crashes due to rush of traffic

Healthcare.gov

The deadline to sign up for Obamacare is today, and the site has been experiencing technical difficulties due to the rush of traffic to its site.

The deadline is precisely at midnight on Monday, Mar. 31, to sign up for private health insurance.

The Department of Health and Human Services said in a statement Monday morning: "HealthCare.gov marketplace application and enrollment system is currently unavailable. The tech team is working now to bring the system online as soon as possible."

The site was down between 3.20 a.m. to 8 a.m. this morning and is currently back up. However, when trying to register for a plan, a message on the site reads: "HealthCare.gov has a lot of visitors right now! We need you to wait here, so we can make sure there's room for you to have a good experience on our site."

For those who can't wait, a mesage reads: "Leave your email with us, and we'll send you a one-time message when HealthCare.gov is ready for you to return."

An estimated 6 million people have applied for insurance so far and that number is expected to exceed by the end of today.

Consumers can also apply for healthcare offline by calling the Marketplace call center at 1-800-318-2596.

Consumers don't necessarily have to complete the healthcare application by today, but should at least register and begin the application by the end of the day. They will be allowed to complete their applications after Monday.

Offline paper applications will be accepted until April 7.