Outside of Open Enrollment, you may still be able to purchase a health plan… if you have a Qualifying Life Change Event that gets you in under the Special Enrollment Period rules.
Some of the Qualifying Events are:
- Losing your job-based insurance
- Losing other health insurance (for any reason other than non-payment of premium or voluntary cancellation)
- Having a baby
- Getting married
- Moving to a new state or new zip code (sometimes)
- A change in your immigration status causes you to become newly eligible to purchase a plan
- Someone in your household dies (sometimes)
- You become newly eligible for an ICHRA or QSEHRA
- Leaving incarceration
- A change in your income can sometimes qualify you for an SEP, contact us for more details
Be careful! You only have 60 calendar days from the qualifying event date to apply for a new plan. In some situations, you can apply up to 60 days before your event date to avoid a gap in coverage. You will also need official documentation of your event, so make sure you keep any and all paperwork that you receive!