Don’t Forget August 15th is the Last Day of COVID Special Enrollment
Unless another extension is passed, August 15th will be the last day of extended enrollment for COIVD-19.
If you don’t have coverage already and didn’t enroll by the 15th, you won’t be able to get coverage again until Open Enrollment 2022.
2021 Special Enrollment Due to COVID-19 Dates HealthCare.Gov
Here are the deadlines for the 36 states that use HealthCare.gov.
- February 15, 2021: Special Enrollment 2021 begins.
- Aug 15, 2021: Special Enrollment 2021 ends.
There are no known extensions at this time. See state-based deadlines below.
Did My State Do Special Enrollment For Coronavirus?
The 14 other states were all encouraged by the federal government to implement the same special enrollment for all.
You should check with your state, but here are the general state-based special enrollment deadlines (notice that some are extended while others are limited).
2021 Special Enrollment Due to COVID-19 State-based Deadlines
- California: Through December 31
- Colorado: Through “at least” August 15
- Connecticut: Through August 15
- DC: Through the end of the pandemic emergency period
- Idaho: Through April 30 (ended; a qualifying event is now necessary in order to enroll or change plans)
- Maryland: Through August 15 (retroactive coverage is available, depending on when a person enrolls)
- Massachusetts: Through July 23
- Minnesota: Through July 16 (for uninsured residents and people transitioning from off-exchange to on-exchange coverage)
- Nevada: Through August 15
- New Jersey: Through December 31
- New York: Through December 31
- Pennsylvania: Through August 15
- Rhode Island: Through August 15
- Vermont: Through October 1 (for uninsured residents)
- Washington: Through August 15
Find Out if You Qualify
You qualify for special enrollment if:
- You don’t currently have insurance.
- If you are on unemployment or filed for it.
- You had a qualifying life event.
You also qualify for Medicaid/CHIP if your income is low enough.
If you aren’t sure if you qualify, go to HealthCare.Gov and apply.
Does an employer have to offer the company current Health Insurance plans to employee if the employee already has Indian Health benefits in Oklahoma?
If you are a business that needs to offer coverage, it is best practice to offer coverage to every FTE. You only get fined if they end up not having qualifying coverage, which will be reported on their taxes. If you offer coverage, you are playing it safe. If you don’t, you will only get fined if they end up not having qualifying coverage.
I don’t know for 100% certain if Oklahoma Indian Health benefits count as qualifying coverage. So I don’t want to give a definitive answer here. But I will say that everything aside from some limited benefit coverage types tend to count. Still, this information should give you hopefully a better idea of the best move.