Get Your Cost Assistance In Place Before Dec 15

It is important to get your cost assistance in place by Dec 15. Open Enrollment ends Dec 15.

It isn’t the end of the world if you are enrolled in a plan, and then your income changes (and thus your cost assistance changes). However, if you cost assistance isn’t in place by the time your first month of coverage for 2019 starts you may end up not getting the full credits owed, may end up owing back credits if you take too much, or may run into problems with Cost Sharing Reduction.

Cost sharing reduction is only offered on Silver plans.

If you for example go with Bronze thinking your cost assistance isn’t changed from last year, but then find out you would have qualified for Cost Sharing Reduction assistance, you could find yourself having to forgo that assistance this year.

In other words, you have some more flexibility on assistance than you do on plan selection, but the two are also linked and thus it makes sense to have all your ducks in a row before enrollment closes on Dec 15.