When the open enrollment commences on November 1, 2015, there will be two avenues for enrollment on 2016 individual plans. The first avenue is “passive enrollment” for those who are already enrolled on an individual plan who are happy with it; they will basically do nothing, and just continue with the plan that they already have (read your renewal letter and look for changes that are highlighted in the letter). The vast majority of people choose this route, because they have already spent time in the past to carefully choose the plan that works well for them, and so they are perfectly happy remaining on that plan. The second avenue is “active enrollment”, for those who are just entering the individual market or who are already enrolled but would like to make a plan change. This avenue means that you must do something proactive to change your plan. Many of you have already contacted our office for assistance with this. If you would like help making a change because of your current plans price, scope of coverage, network, or personal health changes, please contact our office right away so that we can assist you with that change.
This year our office will be rolling out several helpful tools, including Health Sherpa, which will simplify the enrollment process on the exchange for you. We also have a wealth of tools available on our website to help you with all elements of your insurance and financial life. Make sure you check it out!
If you have not done so already, make sure you contact our office if you need assistance or want to make changes once the open enrollment begins. In your correspondence, be prepared to provide your zip code, the dates of birth and names of all of the people you want to cover, whether or not anybody uses tobacco, what insurance plan you have currently, what doctors and hospitals are important to you, and if you have any special needs from a medication standpoint. Also indicate whether or not you think you are subsidy eligible. By providing this information, we are able to narrow down the plans that you should be looking at.
Thank you for reading this message, and for preparing yourself for Open-Enrollment 2016. We look forward to working with you!