Day 8: Today's Important Thing to know about Health Care Reform

 

Today’s important thing to know is when will the marketplace open?  Gee, I would like an answer to that one myself.  Open enrollment is supposed to begin October 1 – just six weeks from now.  Unfortunately, there are still many questions about the government’s systems and whether they will be secure and able to handle the amount of traffic they will surely have once they are open.  The insurance companies are so nervous about the actual start date that they have postponed advertising the exchanges at this point.  So, all I can tell you is what the law says and what HHS (Health & Human Services) and CMS (Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services) are saying.  Federally facilitated exchanges or marketplaces are supposed to open on October 1^st of 2013.  Anyone enrolling October 1 through December 31 will have a policy with an effective date of January 1, 2014.  The exchanges are scheduled to remain open until March 31^st of 2014.  Any policy purchased in January will be effective February 1 and so on.  If you do not enroll during the initial six month enrollment period, you will be locked out until open enrollment next year which will be six weeks starting on October 15^th and running until December 7^th which mirrors Medicare open enrollment.  To stay up to date, check my Facebook page at Holt Health Insurance.  Tomorrow we will talk about how you cannot be turned down for insurance.