The awful problems that have plagued the federal Obamacare website have obviously placed a huge roadblock in the way of enrollment on the exchanges, which is crucial to the program’s long term success. One reason for this: Insurance companies had to essentially suspend plans for a massive advertising campaign to draw in new customers, since many of them had no way of apprising themselves of coverage options available to them.

But here’s the flip side of this: If the federal website is mostly operational by the end of the month, it’s likely we’ll see a massive flood of advertising from insurance companies selling new plans over the exchanges. The advertising that was placed on hold may simply resume –and it may be heavily concentrated in December and the three months in 2014 leading up to the March 31st enrollment deadline.

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