What are Qualifying Life Events for Health Insurance?
Open enrollment is usually the one time of year you can change your health insurance coverage without a qualifying event.
But outside that window, you might need to get a new policy or change who is covered—and you can, under some circumstances.
Here’s what you should know about qualifying life events and special enrollment periods with regards to your health insurance.
What is a qualifying life event for health insurance?
A QLE is generally a change in your household status, location of residence, income or employer coverage.
- Household event changes include getting married, having a baby, adopting or fostering a child, and losing coverage due to legal separation, divorce or death.
- Residence changes include moving to a new ZIP code or county and moving to the U.S.
- Employer changes include losing coverage due to reduced hours, a layoff or voluntary departure, expecting to lose coverage within 60 days or becoming eligible for employer coverage.
- Income changes mean that your income has decreased enough that you qualify for cost-sharing savings—or increased enough that you no longer qualify.
- Other changes include losing Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program coverage, no longer qualifying as a dependent child, losing student coverage or not being able to enroll on time due to a natural disaster or serious illness.
How long is the special enrollment period for a qualifying event?
It’s important to act quickly to secure new coverage after a qualifying life event. You’ll typically have just 60 days before or after the event to enroll.
That may sound like plenty of time, but it’s best to start right away. It takes a while to learn about your options, make an informed decision and complete the enrollment paperwork.
Quality Choice Insurance Agents Can Help you Navigate Medicare or Marketplace Insurance to Make the Best Decisions!
We’re available to help you with health insurance changes when a qualifying event occurs, and can even help you get set up with ‘gap’ insurance in between jobs.
