ST. PAUL— Minnesota’s health insurance exchange has extended the deadline for a second time to give residents more time to enroll for coverage that takes effect Jan. 1.

Minnesotans now have until noon on Wednesday, Dec. 31, to enroll via MNsure. That’s after several insurance companies extended their own enrollment deadlines for Jan. 1 coverage.

The original deadline was Dec. 15. MNsure then changed it to Dec. 20. Even with this second extension to Dec. 31, MNsure is strongly urging Minnesotans not to wait until the last minute. Calls to the MNsure contact center averaged 1,600 per hour Tuesday.

As of Thursday, nearly 53,000 Minnesotans had successfully enrolled for coverage via MNsure in the current open enrollment season. That includes nearly 25,000 in private health plans and about 28,000 in public programs.