Key takeaways
- Open Enrollment runs 1 November to 15 January on the federal Marketplace.
- Enrol by 15 December and coverage starts 1 January; enrol 16 December to 15 January and it starts 1 February.
- Outside the window you need a Special Enrollment Period, which usually runs 60 days around a qualifying event.
- Medicaid and CHIP accept applications all year, so they have no enrolment window at all.
Open Enrollment on the federal Marketplace runs from 1 November to 15 January. The closing date gets the attention, but the date that changes what a household actually gets is 15 December.
Open Enrollment
The deadline inside Open Enrollment that changes your start date
Enrolling by 15 December starts coverage on 1 January. Enrolling in the weeks after that pushes the start to 1 February.
Days in the window
View the data as a table
| Category | Days |
|---|---|
| Nov 1 – Dec 15 | 45 |
| Dec 16 – Jan 15 | 31 |
Two windows, two start dates
| Enrol between | Days | Coverage starts |
|---|---|---|
| 1 November – 15 December | 45 | 1 January |
| 16 December – 15 January | 31 | 1 February |
Outside the window
After 15 January you can enrol or change plans only with a Special Enrollment Period. Depending on the type, you usually have 60 days before or 60 days after the qualifying event. A birth, an adoption or a foster placement can start coverage on the day of the event even if you enrol up to 60 days later.
- Losing other coverage, including job-based coverage
- A move that meets the Marketplace rules
- Marriage, a birth, an adoption or a foster placement
- Certain changes in income or household that affect eligibility
Medicaid and CHIP work differently again: they take applications all year, and Florida decides that eligibility separately. If you are unsure which window applies, the enrolment window checker walks through it.
Sources
Checked . Figures are published by the organisations below; confirm the current year before relying on any of them.
- 1When can you get health insurance? Dates and deadlinesHealthCare.gov
- 2Getting health coverage outside Open EnrollmentHealthCare.gov
