146K sign up during ObamaCare extension

Nearly 150,000 people signed up for health insurance during ObamaCare’s extra enrollment period this spring, the federal government announced Tuesday.

People who lack insurance were given an extra month and a half to buy coverage through the federal marketplace to avoid next year’s penalty, which will rise to at least $325 a person.

This year is the first time that ObamaCare’s individual mandate penalty goes into effect. Critics had complained that ObamaCare’s original deadline, Feb. 15, was too close to the end of tax season, April 15, which meant some people might not have known about the 2015 tax until it was too late to sign up.

The federal marketplace, HealthCare.gov, announced the new numbers — 146,000 between March 15 and April 30 — in a tweet Tuesday afternoon.