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Open Enrollment is Over – Or is it?

Open Enrollment is Over – Or is it?   The federal government’s marketplace, healthcare.gov, is where millions of Americans shop for individual health coverage. The open enrollment deadline for applying for coverage through healthcare.gov was December 15th for a January 1st, 2021 effective date. BUT – a number of states have their own marketplaces with later deadlines for buying coverage directly with a health insurer or through the state-based marketplace or exchange. New York, New Jersey, and California residents

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Loss of Subsidized COBRA — A Special Enrollment Period?

Loss of Subsidized COBRA — A Special Enrollment Period?   A Special Enrollment Period allows someone to change healthcare coverage outside of a normal enrollment cycle. In the individual market, when the reforms of the Affordable Care Act took effect in 2014, if one elected COBRA (temporary extension of group coverage) they were locked into the COBRA coverage until the next annual open enrollment period or until the end of COBRA. We recently learned that several years later, states served by the

business not as usual

Avoid Medicare Enrollment Headaches!

Avoid Medicare Enrollment Headaches! Hello, Enrolling in Medicare involves more steps than most people realize and the process has recently changed. Applying for Medicare A and/or B is done through Social Security. If an application for Medicare A and B is for someone who paid in to Social Security (not a spouse, ex-spouse, or deceased spouse) then an on-line process can be used for Medicare Part A and also for Part B (if applying for B around one’s 65th birthday). An on-line process rather