Qualifying Event For Insurance Time Frame

Here s what you need to know.

Qualifying event for insurance time frame. The concept of a qualifying life event is that it is a life changing circumstance that impacts your situation in particular to health insurance. The irs states that a qualifying event must have an impact on your insurance needs or change what health insurance plans that you qualify for. These are periods are either once or twice per year.

Open enrollment for 2018 individual health plans will be from nov. In either case the qualifying life event would trigger a special enrollment period that would make you eligible to select a new individual insurance policy through the state marketplace. Usually you ll need to make changes within 30 or 60 days of your qualifying life event depending on your plan.

Individual health insurance purchased through a state insurance marketplace or direct from an insurance company have a set open enrollment. In the individual market this was never part of the equation prior to 2014 people could apply for coverage anytime they wanted. However in the likely event that the employer chooses not to subsidize cobra the cobra premium cannot exceed 100 percent of the cost of the group health plan for similarly situated individuals who have not incurred a qualifying event including both the portion paid by employees and any portion paid by the employer prior to the qualifying.

Sign up right away. Qualifying life event qle a change in your situation like getting married having a baby or losing health coverage that can make you eligible for a special enrollment period allowing you to enroll in health insurance outside the yearly open enrollment period. If you get health insurance through an employer a university as a student.

Although some of the qualifying life events seem straightforward there are important factors about these qualifying life events that make them qualify you for special enrollment. For a workplace health insurance plan your employer creates its own enrollment window. It s up to you to make necessary changes within that time frame.

After a qualifying life event you have 60 days to make changes to their health insurance policy. When those changes come they might open the door for you to qualify to sign up for health insurance outside the annual open enrollment period. This enrollment period allows you the time needed to get health insurance quotes and visit the health insurance marketplace to find a policy that will best fit their life with the new changes.