Accidentally Declined Employer Coverage, What do I Do?
I work for St. Paul’s Catholic School in the Diocese of St. Augustine, Florida. We receive health insurance benefits paid in full by the diocese.
Last May I went online to fill out the re-enrollment form. Apparently, I hit the “decline” button for insurance. This was certainly an accident on my part. I didn’t even know that I didn’t have coverage until I went to the dermatologist in September and the claim was denied.
The diocese was not willing/able to amend this error with BC/BS. They informed me that I would have to wait until the next fiscal year to re-enroll.
How am I to manage this? I do not have money budgeted for insurance. The school pays for my coverage, normally. I will re-enroll in May for starting date of July 1. Please advise me on this as soon as possible. I realize that the deadline is fast approaching.
Answer
You don't have access to employer based coverage, so you'll need to have your employer fill out a employer coverage tool. You should be able to enroll in a Marketplace plan in the meantime. The problem is that you only have until Feb 15th. So you'll need to create a Marketplace account. That will trigger a 60 day Special Enrollment period to give you time to sort this out.
You can also look into Special Enrollment options through your employer.
Keep in mind that since you kind-of-technically have access to employer based coverage you may run into issues with cost assistance. Still a bronze plan should be affordable and cover you until next open enrollment for your employer.