Dear Navigator: I am about to change jobs and I will lose my health
insurance. Can I sign up for new health insurance on healthcare.gov this
year?
Hola,
the open enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act (ACA) is over as of
February 15, 2015, ay que triste!
The opportunity to enroll has come and gone
with the wind, the doors are closed the ventanas are clo… well there is still
some “special” enrollment windows that can be opened with certain life changing
events. For example, you get a 60-day window to enroll in insurance if you are tying
the knot with your amorcito, if you are having or adopting a new niñito or niñita,
if you moved to a new residence, obtained lawful presence in the U.S., gaining
citizenship also counts, leaving incarceration, you lost your health coverage,
this can include losing Medicaid, getting divorce, losing job-based coverage
including COBRA and or aging out of your parents coverage by turning 26.
Because you are changing jobs and losing your insurance, it appears that you will qualify for a 60-day window to sign up for new health insurance on healthcare.gov.
See
this infographic for more details about Special Enrollment periods. (pdf).
Being
a member of an Indian tribe or an Alaskan Native gives you the opportunity to
enroll at any point during the year. If you didn’t have insurance because you
fell in the Medicaid Coverage Gap but now your income has increased above 100%
of the federal poverty level (for more details, see chart here), you likely qualify
for tax subsidies and you can enroll.
But
remember, you have only 60 days from the moment of the life-changing even to
enroll. If you miss the 60-day window, you miss out.
If
you don’t qualify for any of these special enrollment periods, the next open enrollment
period starts November 1, 2015 and ends January 31, 2016. You might ask
yourself, why can’t I apply whenever I want? The purpose of enrollment periods
is to stabilize and control the cost of health care by having sick and healthy
people jump in the same pool at the same time. If you could enroll at any time
of the year, the healthy people would wait until they became sick to purchase
insurance, and having only sick people in the pool would raise the cost of
coverage. Do car insurance companies allow you to buy insurance after you wreck
your car? No way. During open enrollment, health insurance companies do allow
you to sign up for any reason. But they close enrollment for about 2/3 of the
year to protect themselves against adverse risk and to encourage people to sign
up prior to becoming sick. After all, the
purpose of health insurance is to be covered at all times so that it’s there
when you need it. Keep in mind the only
Utah health coverage that can be accessed at any time of the year is Medicaid
and CHIP.
If you need help or have
questions, find a nearby enrolment expert at the Take Care Utah website, or call 2-1-1. Take Care Utah helps people find and understand their new options
for affordable healthcare coverage by connecting them with trained enrollment
specialists in their communities. All services are provided free of charge.
Hasta luego,
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