Beginning November 1, Covered California will operate its annual Open Enrollment period. If you’re already covered by an individual or family health insurance plan, you might be wondering what you’re supposed to do at this time. Californians often begin asking questions such as, “If my plan is renewed, do I need to do anything?” or “What if my plan is not renewed? What should I do then?” Hopefully we can answer some of your questions below.\r
\r
Around October 12, Covered California will start contacting customers whose health insurance plans are up for renewal in 2016. If you receive such a notice, you have 30 days to make changes to your account. You can log into your account through the Covered California website and update any information, or make changes to your plan. For example, you might wish to change from an individual plan to a family plan. Or, you might want to choose a plan with a different deductible or level of coverage.\r
\r
If you like your plan just as it is, you don’t actually have to do anything at all. At the end of the 30-day period, your plan will be automatically renewed, so long as you gave Covered California your consent to verify income and family size (you would have done this at the time of your original application).\r
\r
If you did not give consent to verify income and family size, your plan will still renew. However, it will now renew at full price. This means that you could lose your subsidy, if you receive one, if you do not update Covered California with that information by the end of the Open Enrollment period (December 15). Remember to log into your account via Covered California, and update your financial and family size information. This is a very short, simple process that could potentially save you a lot of money in the coming year.\r
\r
If you make changes to your health insurance plan, your new plan will take effect on January 1, 2016. Remember this date while making plans for your upcoming health care.