Obama signs up for health care, buying bronze plan the White House calls ‘symbolic’ --- Obama was enrolled in the D.C. exchange over the weekend, aides said, purchasing a “bronze”-level plan that will set him back about $400 a month (with a salary of $400,000, the president doesn’t qualify for subsidies). But aides said he won’t use the plan: Obama and his family will continue to receive, as all recent presidents have, medical care through the U.S. military. -- As this act of political theater played out here in Hawaii, where Obama is vacationing , his administration continued to scramble back in Washington to prepare for the Jan. 1 start of coverage. Administration officials disclosed Monday that they had quietly changed the rules to allow last-minute shoppers an extra day to enroll, pushing the deadline back to midnight Tuesday. -- Aides said Obama’s unique situation as president meant that he was unable to sign up for a plan online. The databases that HealthCare.gov and related sites use to verify people’s identities did not contain Obama’s personal information, aides said, so staffers had to go in person to the D.C. exchange offices over the weekend to get him enrolled. -- Obama selected a bronze plan — the cheapest of four categories, below platinum, gold and silver, that designate how much of overall health-care costs are covered by an insurer. --- Thus Obama is paying $5,000 a year out of pocket for a plan that a White House official said was merely “symbolic.” - More, Washingtonpost, at: http://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/obama-signs-up-for-health-care-buying-bronze-plan-the-white-house-calls-symbolic/2013/12/23/109fc1e6-6c06-11e3-aecc-85cb037b7236_story.html?hpid=z4