Enrollment Extension Due to Life Events?

I applied for Medicaid the other day, hoping that I would qualify. I did not but was offered a discount to my health insurance.

I attempted to enroll through Connect for Health Colorado and spoke with someone there who told me that my qualifying event (the loss of a job with health insurance) was more than 60 days ago (which is accurate) and therefore I have no ability to enroll through Connect for Health Colorado.

I am not sure how to obtain the extension, though I presume that because I applied for Medicaid and was denied that I would be eligible for such an extension. I had health insurance through November of last year and so I was not aware that I only had 60 days after its loss to enroll and I did not realize that I would be paying such hefty fees each month for not having health insurance. I don’t make a lot – I can’t afford those fees.

I have looked into short term health insurance, but those do not seem to remove the fee. I can’t pay for both the insurance AND the fee. I barely make ends meet as it is.

I’d just like some help figuring this out. The individual I spoke with at Connect for Health Colorado wouldn’t or couldn’t give me a straight answer she just kept saying that my qualifying event was over 60 days ago. I’d really like to get things set up properly and as inexpensively as possible, but I can’t seem to find anyone to help me do that.