Important deadline ahead for health insurance marketplace

Six days before the December 15 deadline for coverage that starts January 1, acting Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Andrew Slavitt said there has been a “surge of interest” is signing up for insurance.

Kevin Counihan, CEO, Health Insurance Marketplaces, CMS, reminds consumers a penalty fee is applied if they are not enrolled by the end of January.

Last year, 54,266 Montanans signed up, with 22,618 selecting plans by the December 15 deadline.

But the numbers also mean that several million customers have not yet signed up for coverage for 2016, even though federal officials have repeatedly said that, to avoid a potential spike in prices, people should shop around for available health plans – and be willing to switch. “Although the deadline is approaching, there is still time to compare plans and chose the plan that’s best for you”. That includes the 1 million new enrollees and another 1.8 million who renewed their policies. Dick Durbin joined other officials in urging uninsured IL residents to enroll and others who buy marketplace coverage to re-enroll. “More than 2 million consumers have selected a plan and over 700,000 are new Marketplace consumers in the 38 states using the HealthCare.gov platform”.

In mid-2014, Obama administration officials touted the fact that the federal exchange could reenroll HealthCare.gov customers automatically in their current insurance, or similar coverage if that was unavailable, so that they would not need to return to the website. In order to ensure that consumers had access to the insurance coverage they needed, many states had a special enrollment period earlier this year.

January 31, 2016: Open Enrollment ends.

5, which is the most recent data available, Montana had 16,097 signups for insurance through the federal Health Insurance Marketplace at Healthcare.gov, according to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.

Under the law, the tax penalties will increase next year.

Finally, if you choose not to be covered by health insurance, get ready to pay up in the form of a penalty.