It’s the last Tuesday of the year, I cannot believe how quickly this year has gone by. I have made it through the first round of open enrollment. I am currently getting a lot of questions about the health care coverage starting January 1, questions such as people not receiving their ID cards, things like that. What I tell all of my clients is that you should have gotten an email from the carrier you selected, asking you to enroll in a portal. If I helped you with your first payment, you will now need to go into your portal, and set up auto-pay, so that you don’t have to worry about going in and paying your premium every month. There you should have access then to your digital ID cards. Yes, they do send them in the mail as well. But it’s really nice to have the portal because it shows you your benefits. It shows all of your plan details, it also has a spot where you can go search for providers. Because remember – always, always, always stay in-network, if at all possible, because you’re going to save the most money that way. When claims are paid, the EOB’s are in there. Toward the end of the year, it’ll have your renewal information. There’s lots and lots of good information in your portal.
So please, please, please enroll in that. I’m always here to help with whatever you need. But my first question to you will always be, “Did you enroll in your portal?” Because the portal allows you to see a lot of the things that I can see. And a lot of times you don’t have to wait on me because the answers are in there. I am always happy to answer questions about the coverages you have.
The next thing I would like to share with you is that if you are truly unhappy with the coverage that you have selected for January 1, you can reach out to me and there are changes that we can make, as long as these changes are made before January 15. The deadline of January 15 is the final opportunity to make changes to Marketplace plans for the year and is the hard-stop deadline. These changes will only go into effect on February 1, meaning that you will have the original coverage you selected from January 1 to February 1. We essentially would need to cancel your original coverage and sign you up for the next plan based on your choices.
Remember – in the Marketplace, your coverage cannot be changed unless you’re canceling. So what a lot of people don’t realize is the coverage is for ‘month to month’, meaning that if you’ve had something come up and for whatever reason, you don’t want health insurance anymore, you can cancel. I strongly don’t recommend you go without health insurance because you never know what can happen. If you’re opting out of Marketplace coverage, be careful about canceling because you cannot enroll in new Marketplace coverage until November of 2022. So that’s really important information to know when making that decision. Of course, there are some other options available, for example, private pay and things like that. But those options do require underwriting, and there are some stipulations for pre-existing conditions. The Marketplace rules don’t apply to those plans – which is very important to know so that you can make a good choice on what you’re going to do with your health care coverage.
Do not wait too long, because before you know it, it’s the end of the year…
