Americans will soon have another chance to enroll in health insurance offered through the state’s health insurance marketplace, which is offered through the Affordable Care Act. Some commonly refer to the health insurance coverage as “Obamacare”.
The window will open on February 15 and closes on May 15. You could have insurance as soon as March 1.
What does that mean for obtaining health insurance coverage?
The Executive Order signed by President Biden to reopen HealthCare.gov for this three-month enrollment period is good news for people without health insurance.
Here’s why.
The special enrollment period means you can secure individual health insurance or health insurance for a family without proving any type of qualifying event. Those would include marriage, birth, or divorce.
The new open enrollment period also gives you an opportunity to apply for reduced premium plans on the Federal Marketplace. Many people will qualify for a $0 Bronze level plan.
And since many employers cannot afford to provide health insurance benefits, this is an opportunity for employees to secure their own health insurance benefits that aren’t tied to a job. For people who are using COBRA as a health insurance policy, many plans on HealthCare.gov may be less expensive.
While losing a job with health insurance benefits would typically qualify you for a special enrollment period, that window is only open for 60 days. Many people simply don’t make the deadline to sign up. For people who missed that window or who didn’t sign up during the previous open enrollment, this is a second opportunity to secure health insurance.
The latest estimates found 7.7 million workers lost their employer-sponsored health insurance due to the pandemic as of June 2020, according to the Commonwealth Fund. Once you include dependents, that means roughly 14.6 million people were affected.
“The pandemic isn’t going away anytime soon,” Sara N. DeBiasi, President of Benefit Concepts, said. “We are here to help people within our community get insured so that they can get the healthcare access they need when they need it most.”
The services at Benefit Concepts are always free.
Current ACA members can take advantage of the open enrollment too
For people covered under the Affordable Care Act currently, there are some perks to this additional open enrollment period.
You can make changes to your current health plan if you’re not satisfied with your current insurance. For example, that could mean upgrading from Bronze 4 to Silver 16. You can also add or remove dependents from your family health insurance plan.
For people who have experienced an income decrease, you can apply for reduced premium plans through the Federal Marketplace.
Millions of people qualify for subsidies and just don’t know it. In 2018, half of the uninsured population qualified for Medicaid or subsidies through the Affordable Care Act and didn’t know it or didn’t sign up, according to CNBC That was about 15 million people then, and some experts believe there are even more people today.
Navigating these changes and updates can be difficult. The team at Benefit Concepts can help you enroll in coverage or check on subsidies for which you may qualify.
For current grandfathered individual policyholders, products that were sold prior to healthcare reform, your household situation might be a lot different now than it was when you first enrolled. There could be new options for you. This additional open enrollment period could be a good opportunity to check out new plans that may better meet your current needs.
You can call the team at Benefit Concepts to discuss your personal situation so that health insurance experts can determine whether or not you have the health insurance policy you need.
“Some grandfathered clients might be better served on the marketplace if household income levels fall within certain ranges,” DeBiasi explained. “Let us guide you through this process. The marketplace is complicated. We can simplify the process.”
Simplify the health insurance enrollment process
If you are interested in a new health insurance policy or if you want to determine if you qualify for subsidies during the midyear open enrollment, you should start the process by calling Benefit Concepts for a free consultation.
Small business owners can also contact Benefit Concepts to inquire about health insurance policies for employees or connect those employees with Benefit Concepts to find their own health insurance policies.
