Do I Have to Wait Until Open Enrollment If I Never Had Coverage?
Do I have to wait for open enrollment if I have never had coverage prior to Obamacare?
Answer
Health insurance can only be obtained during open enrollment. This applies to coverage inside and outside of ObamaCare's Health Insurance Marketplace. This is true even if you have never had coverage before, but there are exceptions if you are losing coverage for any reason other than non-payment of fraud.
Each insurance type actually has it's own open enrollment period. Each insurance types enrollment period works a little different, for instance Medicaid and CHIP can be enrolled in any time of year, but Medicare has different rules for it's initial enrollment period.
The subject can be a little complex so we suggest going to our page on open enrollment to learn everything you need to know.
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I worked for my place of employement before and had health ins rhru them. I got a new job in May of 2016 and no longer had old ins but took ins with new employeer. I was laid off in Jan 2017 and no longer have their, or any ins. I came back to old employeer as rehire Jan 13, 2017 My 90 days are coming up next week. My employeer is telling me I have to wait for open enrollment, in July to get ins. They told me all employees can only get health ins during open enrollment in July and only if they had been there 90 days. So if I was hired June 2017 I would have to wait till July 2018 to get coverage. Is this legal, or do they have to offer me ins at my 90 days, no longer then that?
There should be an initial enrollment period for new hires. Generally it is within 30 days of the time of being hired.
The rules are a bit complex, but you shouldn’t have to wait until open enrollment.
This page does a good job of explaining: https://www.thehortongroup.com/resources/health-plan-enrollment-rules