December is rapidly coming to a close. We have passed the December 15 deadline, which is the first deadline for open enrollment.
A reminder of how open enrollment works:
Every year, November 1 through December 15 is your opportunity to enroll in new coverage for an effective date of January 1. That date is super important if you already have coverage, because your existing coverage, if you don’t look at it will auto-renew.
It is also important to take note of the fact that sometimes things have changed; your income has changed, the price of your plan has changed, or your plan doesn’t exist anymore, in which case they likely just bumped you to a different plan, which usually costs more.
We still have one more open enrollment date to meet.
And that’s January 15, for an up for an effective date of February 1.
What that means is, that if you had existing coverage and forgot to check in, we can look at that now, and then we can change it for February 1, but you are kind of stuck until February 1.
The other alternative is to cancel your coverage on December 31. Go without coverage for January and then we can pick it back up on February 1 if it’s crazy.
ALSO: you don’t want to pay that additional amount if you forgot to enroll at all!
I can get you coverage, it will begin February 1, but we can certainly get you coverage.
WHAT IF YOU PICKED YOUR PLAN YOURSELF AND ARE UNSURE IF IT IS THE RIGHT PLAN?
Please feel free to reach out to me and schedule a time and I can evaluate that. I can also check to make sure if we need to make changes to that, or if you want to add me as your broker, we can do that at this time as well.
Lastly, there are a lot of people whose Cobra is ending December 31, or really whatever month it ends when Cobra ends, then you do have the opportunity for a special qualifying life event. So if you miss the December 15 deadline, your Cobra is ending December 31. We do still have time to enroll you for January 1 because you have a qualifying event that applies. Any qualifying event; if you’re losing your job, and your coverage is going away at the end of the month, that does qualify you for a special event, and we can enroll you in coverage, but we only have 60 days to do that.
Many people don’t realize they have that 60-day time window and they haven’t had coverage since May. And they thought “Oh, I could just sign up at any time!”. No, you cannot.
60 days from the date your coverage ends is the window. It is super important to reach out to me when you know your coverage is going to end so that we can make sure we meet all the deadlines.
So again, I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday whatever you choose to celebrate, I am here.
I will be working not on the holidays but I will be working during this open enrollment and I still have some Saturday evening appointments through the end of January 15.
