One thing that has happened quite frequently this week, is that I’ve had people calling me asking me about enrolling in health insurance. What a lot of people do not realize is that “open enrollment” is the time period that you can enroll in insurance. This period is from November 1 through January 15.

If you want coverage for January 1, you have to do it by December 15. Outside of that enrollment period, you can only enroll if you have a qualifying event, and if you had insurance 60 days prior. This means that you had to lose your other health insurance, whether it was health insurance through your employer if it was Cobra, or maybe a spouse is going on Medicare; meaning that you are now going to lose your coverage.

Overall, I have found that people just don’t realize that they just can’t roll in health coverage at any time. I had a lady call me this week telling me that her coverage ended on March 31. And it is now in June. And we’ve passed the 60-day window, and she did not realize that there was only a 60-day window. So if you want major medical coverage, you can only do that within 60 days of you losing coverage or during open enrollment.

There are other options outside of traditional health insurance. If you want something to tide you over there are short-term plans or indemnity plans, and other things that we can do. That will at least buy you some time until open enrollment happens. And then we evaluate during open enrollment and see which plan makes the most sense for you.

If you currently don’t have coverage, you’re not going to be able to enroll unless you have some kind of major life change event. And normally you have to have had coverage 60 days prior. There are a couple of exceptions to that. But for the most part, that’s a good rule to go by. If you’re unsure you can always call me and check with me. And I’m happy to talk to you and then put you on my calendar for open enrollment.