I just read in the Times that this is the start of the open enrollment period. Is there any principled reason you can’t enroll at any time. If I moved to the US in June, would I be banned for half a year?
I don’t know about Medicare, but if it’s insurance you are paying for it’s because people would wait until they got sick to enrol.
You can enrol part-way through the year for specified bona fide reasons. This would probably be one of them.
ETA: for Medicare it appears to be called a Special Enrolment Period
“Open enrollment” is the time that everyone every year who’s already in the Medicare system can change to a different plan without extra hassle. Essentially everyone either renews what they have for next year, or picks something else and makes those arrangements for next year. So everyone starts fresh on Jan 1 with whichever plan they’ve chosen for that new year.
Anyone who enters the Medicare system for the first time for any reason at any time during the year can enroll then for the remainder of the current year. But once November rolls around, they get to renew / change for next year just like everyone else. Examples of just entering the system are turning age 65, immigrating from another country, acquiring certain diseases or disabilities, etc.
US employer-provided health insurance works the same way. Every Fall existing employees get to decide whether / which of their offered employee benefits they’ll have next year. Including keeping what they already have insofar as the employer offers the same thing next year.
And new hires, or employees who get married / divorced / widowed / have kids, etc. are allowed to make changes to their coverage when those events occur. Otherwise, you’re stuck with your choices until the next open enrollment period in the upcoming Fall.
The term “Open” in “open enrollment” is kind of a misnomer. It’s really “No special reason / excuse required; everyone can (re-) enroll during this window.” People who have a special excuse / reason can enroll any time. Or at least any time reasonably soon after they first become eligible.
The “reasonably soon” limit is there, as @Riemann said, to prevent people from free-riding and buying into the system just after they get sick /injured.
That makes sense. Thanks.
In the regular US health insurance industry they are called qualifying events. Marriage, end of marriage, birth of a child, loss of eligibility for a parent’s health insurance and a spouse’s loss of employment, off the top of my head.
Note that some employer insurance (for teachers and such) may run on different schedule and not Jan-Dec.
Brian
As an innocent bystander in Canada…
The ads for these run non-stop on CNN and similar stations this time of year. Thy seem to offer a choice of plans, some offer income support, otthers offer prescrition coverage, etc. I suppose what they want is that someone not wait until they need serious prescriptions, for example, to change their plan to one with better coverage. Or for supplemental income when hospitalized. Or dental work…