hey there it's Ron with insurance for Texas and today we're going to talk about can I sign up for
health insurance after open enrollment but before I go there if you love the video that you're saying hit the Subscribe button to the YouTube channel hit the alert notification so that you'll be kept up-to-date with any time we're providing this kind of information to you about insurance in the state of Texas that said one of the questions that gets brought up is can I sign up for health insurance after open enrollmentwhere did that come from will the Affordable Care Act was signed into law in 2010 in 2014 we got the health care Insurance Exchange that brought policies that had minimum components and they had to be sold to anyone regardless of pre-existing conditions what they did when they put that in the places they took the last couple of months of the year November and December and they said if you're going to sign up for a health insurance policy for the next yearyou need to do it then you need to commit to the whole year that was a great thing for the insurance companies it allowed them to identify exactly who is coming in it got a full Year's coverage so they could level out the cost and it was great for however there was some negative ramifications for Texans and that was primarily in that it cut down on the options on what was available and specifically if you were on COBRA or you had certain things that we're going on and you lost coverage in the middle of the year what are you do you got to get insurance right so there's basically four ways that you can get insurance outside of open enrollment so number one you can go on a hill sharing plan because those can be enrolled in anytime this second is a qualifying life event 3rd is use a short-term medical plan in the fourth is to use catastrophic health today we're going to focus on the last three because they are true health insurance but I did want to mention that the Dell share plan is an alternative first so qualifying life event what is that that is where you have a loss of coverage as a result of a list of things so the first one would be a change in your household maybe you got divorced maybe you got married maybe you are widowed those are things that would qualify you to enroll for a Affordable Care Act plan outside of open enrollment the next one is a change of residence in this is one that my office has dealt with recently person moved from Colorado to Texas during the middle of the year The Exchange driven plant in Colorado did not does not afford coverage and taxes so there was the ability to change and enroll in a Texas plan when that move occur the last piece of this you're going to be just other life events so that could be maybe you got out of jail maybe you had a loss of coverage due to cover running out the reality is if you got this in play there is a 60-day window after that cut off where the coverage in that you can enroll into a short-term medical plan but owned a 61 year in trees gone the second way that you can obtain health insurance outside of open enrollment is through a short-term medical plan what is a short-term medical plan will then came around after the Affordable Care Act put open enrollment place the politicians should wait a minute we have people that are going to lose coverage during the year and so they put this provision in there so short-term medical plans when they were first put in place had a maxim time limit of three months and you can keep it for three months and then go through open enrollment and go on to a regular ACA plan that's changed you can now keep that plan for up to 364 days and you can have it for a total of 3 years and they are but they are not compliant with the Affordable Care Act they are intent they were intended to be a stopgap but now people are using them for regular covers there more flexible in the benefits that they offer to you because they do not have to meet the ACA guidelines that said they also don't have to cover pre-existing conditions so there is underwriting involved you may not qualify for one you met and gives you true Insurance it is flexible it can't be more cost-effective but it does have some pitfalls the last piece that you can do is a catastrophic health insurance plan these are things that can be enrolled in any time throughout the year they do provide great protection if the proverbial stuff hits the fan they're made up of a critical illness policy and accident policy and a hospital Indemnity policy to provide you big-ticket coverage while you pay cash for your underlined doctor visits they don't cover pre-existing conditions so that can be a knockout for some folks but it is true Insurance it provides you great flexibility in a very cost-effective fashion and will allow you to obtain that insurance and continue it on without any sort of cap as to how long you can keep it until you turn 65 so you do have options as a text but you need to evaluate which one of those option works best for you always act quickly because of the 60-day window but talk to a professional and look and see which of those plans can make sense for you including time when its open enrollment I'm wrong with insurance for Texans if you want to read more about enrolling outside of open enrollment hit the link in the description of the video it'll take you to our block where you can read all about the information thanks for tuning in I'm Ron with insurance protection have a great day
