What To Do If You Missed Open Enrollment at Work
Updated October 27, 2014.
Did open enrollment slip your mind while you were dealing with a family crisis or on vacation? Are you worried that you’ve made a horrible mistake that will cost thousands of dollars?
Before you panic, check with your employee benefits office. Some employers automatically renew your open enrollment choices from the prior year if you do nothing during open enrollment. If your employer does this, you could have the same benefits next year that you have right now, even though you missed open enrollment.
If your employer doesn’t have an automatic renewal policy, you’ll definitely feel the impact of missing your workplace open enrollment. However, you have options available to you and you can mitigate some of the damage. Here’s what you need to know.
Health Insurance Options if You Missed Open Enrollment at Work
If you’ve lost your health insurance because you failed to sign up during open enrollment, you’ll probably have until the end of the year before your current coverage runs out. Unlike when you get laid off and lose your insurance, you won’t be eligible for COBRA continuation coverage. However, you still have options.
Spousal Health Insurance
If your spouse works, is his or her open enrollment period upcoming? If so, you may be able to get coverage through your spouse’s job.
Young Adult Health Insurance Under a Parent’s Plan
Are you under 26 years old? If so, you may be able to get coverage through a parent’s work-based health insurance if his or her open enrollment hasn’t yet taken place.
You can enroll in a parent’s health plan even if you’re married or have a job, as long as you’re less than 26 years old and your parent’s plan offers coverage for family members.
Obamacare
Has open enrollment on your state’s Affordable Care Act health insurance exchange closed yet? If it’s open enrollment now or in the near future, consider buying a health insurance policy on the exchange to cover you for the year.
When Is Open Enrollment on Health Insurance Exchanges?
You won’t be eligible for a health insurance subsidy to help you pay your monthly premiums if the health insurance your job offered was affordable and covered at least an average of 60% of health care costs. However, on the exchange you’ll have more health plan options to choose from, including some lower-priced plans. The lowest priced plans are usually bronze-level health plans or catastrophic plans, although not everyone is eligible to buy a catastrophic plan.
Medicaid
If your income is low despite working, you may be eligible for Medicaid. Medicaid doesn’t have open enrollment periods; you may apply at any time. Eligibility for Medicaid varies from state to state. All states limit Medicaid enrollment to those with low incomes, but some states impose other restrictions as well. Learn more about Medicaid in your state.
Special Enrollment Period
You may have another chance to enroll in health insurance if a qualifying life event takes place making you eligible for a special enrollment period. Depending on your workplace or exchange rules, qualifying events are usually things like marriage, divorce, having or adopting a baby, or sometimes even moving your household from one area to another.
Change Jobs
If you get a new job that provides benefits, you’ll have an opportunity to enroll in health insurance when you start your new job. Although this may not be a viable option for those in a career where perks and salaries are heavily dependent on seniority or where jobs are hard to come by, if you were thinking of changing jobs anyway, this may be just the impetus you needed to start job-shopping. Learn more in “What Job Seekers Need to Know About Health Insurance.”
Short-Term Health Insurance
If all else fails, consider buying a short-term health insurance policy. Although most states limit these policies to six months, some states allow you to buy back-to-back short-term health insurance policies which could theoretically cover you for the entire year. Short term health insurance is less expensive than comprehensive major-medical health insurance, but it also limits your coverage, limits how much it will pay out in benefits, and can still exclude pre-existing conditions.
Learn more about short-term health insurance in:
- Short-Term Health Insurance—What It Is & How It Works
- Advantages of Short-Term Health Insurance
- Shortcomings of Short-Term Health Insurance
Being Uninsured
If you end up uninsured, prepare to pay the tax penalty for going without health insurance. Known as the Shared Responsibility Payment, you’ll have to pay it if you’re uninsured for more than three months and don’t have an exemption. Learn more in:
Don’t Neglect Your Other Benefits
If you missed open enrollment at work, health insurance isn’t the only thing you’ll be losing out on. You may need to adjust your family’s financial plan to compensate for the loss of other benefits, also. Things to consider include:
- Life insurance. Do you need to buy a term-life policy to provide for your family if you lost your life insurance at work?
- Retirement savings. If you can’t contribute to your 401(k) for the year, do you need to contribute to an IRA or Roth IRA to avoid falling behind in retirement savings? Do you need to change your federal income tax withholding because you’re not contributing to your 401(k)?
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