Your State’s Open Enroll­ment Dead­line for 2020 Health Plans

Open enroll­ment for 2020 health plans is hap­pen­ing now. For most states, the dead­line to enroll in a new plan under the Afford­able Care Act (Oba­macare) is Decem­ber 15, 2019. The fol­low­ing states are excep­tions to this rule:

• Cal­i­for­nia: Jan­u­ary 15, 2020 (per­ma­nent exten­sion)
• Col­orado: Jan­u­ary 15, 2020 (per­ma­nent exten­sion)
• Dis­trict of Colum­bia: Jan­u­ary 31, 2020 (per­ma­nent exten­sion)
• Idaho: Decem­ber 16, 2019
• Mass­a­chu­setts: Jan­u­ary 23, 2020
• Min­nesota: Decem­ber 23, 2019
• New York: Jan­u­ary 31, 2020
• Rhode Island: Decem­ber 31, 2019

Some States May Extend Their Open Enroll­ment Dead­line

The thir­teen states that don’t use the fed­eral health insur­ance exchange at Health​Care​.gov have the flex­i­bil­ity to extend their open enroll­ment dead­line. In the past, many have done so at the last moment. The states with their own exchanges for 2020 are:

• Cal­i­for­nia
• Col­orado
• Con­necti­cut
• Dis­trict of Colum­bia
• Idaho
• Mary­land
• Mass­a­chu­setts
• Min­nesota
• Nevada
• New York
• Rhode Island
• Ver­mont
• Wash­ing­ton

Though the open enroll­ment dead­lines in these states may shift, the best strat­egy is to start review­ing your plan options as soon as you can. Even if you like the cov­er­age you’ve got now, plan details change from year to year and new insur­ers have joined the mar­ket­place in many states. So you may want to set aside some time to com­pare what’s avail­able, rather than sim­ply allow­ing your cur­rent plan to auto-​renew.

Keep in mind, too, that six of these states have passed laws requir­ing you to carry health insur­ance for 2020. If you live in a state with an insur­ance man­date and you’re not cov­ered, you may face a tax penalty when you file in 2021.

Ways to Learn About 2020 Health Plans

There are sev­eral good ways to learn about your health plan options for the com­ing year:

1. Visit your state’s health insur­ance exchange. After years of tech­ni­cal sna­fus, most health insur­ance mar­ket­place web­sites are now work­ing well. In most cases, your exchange web­site will take you through the shop­ping and appli­ca­tion process with­out a hitch. The links in the sec­tion just above will take you to the health insur­ance mar­ket­place for your state.

2. Com­pare plans at Legal Con­sumer. If your state uses Health​Care​.gov — again, that’s every state but the 13 listed just above — you can visit our web­site to see all the plans and rates for your zip code. Our brows­ing tool does­n’t require you to enter your email or any other per­sonal infor­ma­tion — just type in your zip code and go.

3. Get in-​person help. If you need help under­stand­ing your cov­er­age options or sign­ing up for a plan, you can get assis­tance from a trained enroll­ment assis­tant or from a health insur­ance bro­ker or agent. These ser­vices are free.

• Enroll­ment assis­tants, often called “Nav­i­ga­tors,” can explain your options, answer your ques­tions, and help you apply for the plan you choose — but they can’t rec­om­mend a spe­cific plan for you.
• Licensed health insur­ance agents or bro­kers can also help you under­stand your health care cov­er­age options. Unlike government-​trained nav­i­ga­tors and coun­selors, how­ever, bro­kers and agents are allowed to sug­gest plans for you. Being allowed to “cut to the chase” this way can help make the process more effi­cient for you, but don’t sign up for a plan with­out read­ing and under­stand­ing the cov­er­age details for your­self. To directly con­nect with a local insur­ance bro­ker who can help you eval­u­ate insur­ance plans and choose a plan that’s appro­pri­ate for your sit­u­a­tion, call 800–943-6832. (Heads up: We do receive adver­tis­ing income from the licensed bro­kers who offer their ser­vices through this tele­phone num­ber.)

More Infor­ma­tion

To find help in your area, go to Find Local Help at Health​Care​.gov or the equiv­a­lent page at any state-​run exchange. (Every state offers this kind of resource.) Then, you can enter your city and state or zip code to get a list of nav­i­ga­tors, insur­ance agents, and bro­kers near you.

For more help find­ing an afford­able health plan where you live, see our Afford­able Care Act (Oba­macare) learn­ing cen­ter.