Obamacare Enrollment Will Continue if Government Shuts Down

Congress can't stop it

Shutting down the government won't shut down the health-care law.

In a quirk of the calendar, the start of enrollment for the Affordable Care Act and the first day of a shutdown would fall on the same day, Oct. 1. The good news for President Barack Obama is that cutting off funds for non-essential government programs in a shutdown wouldn't stop funding for implementing his health care law, health policy experts said.

"A shutdown per se doesn't stop the Affordable Care Act," said Doug Holtz-Eakin, a former director of the Congressional Budget Office who now leads the American Action Forum, a Washington advocacy group opposed to the health law.