What is Open Enrollment 2022?
Open Enrollment is the window of time where you and your family can sign up for a health insurance plan for 2022 coverage.
It started in November of 2021.The “open” window is longer this year. It goes through January 15, 2022. That’s for a February 1 start date.
How do you sign up for health insurance during Open Enrollment 2022?
- You can go to Healthcare.gov and navigate the system for yourself.
- You can contact a licensed insurance broker (like myself) for no cost, no obligation help. A licensed expert can guide you through the enrollment process on the exchange, or through an insurer directly.
Ready to select a plan? Here’s what you need to know.
Here are some basic terms:
- Premium: This is the amount you pay monthly.
- Covered services: This is what your insurance plan helps you pay for. Usually plans with a higher monthly premium will cover more of the cost of your care.
- Copayments: Often shortened to copays, this is the cost that you’re responsible for paying. For instance, if you have a $10 copay for a visit to a doctor, you will pay a maximum of $10 and your insurer will pay the rest.
- Coinsurance: Similar to a copay, but instead of being a fixed cost ($10), it’s a fixed percentage of the total cost of the appointment, service or prescription. So if you see a specialist that requires a 20% coinsurance and the total cost of that appointment is $100, you’ll owe $20, and your insurer will pay the remaining $80.
- Deductible: If your insurance plan has a deductible, this is the total cost that you’ll need to pay out-of-pocket before your insurer begins paying for services. Once you hit that number, you’ll only owe copays, coinsurance, or maybe nothing at all.
- Maximum Out of Pocket. Also abbreviated as “MOOP”. This is the maximum amount of money that you would ever be expected to pay in a single calendar year. Once you hit that—through copays, coinsurance, or payments towards your deductible—you should owe nothing again beyond your monthly premium.
Subsidies
What’s a subsidy? The government helps pay for the cost of your health insurance. This subsidy is even greater for Open Enrollment 2022 than it was for early 2021.
You might qualify for subsidies now, even if you did not qualify for them before. Under the new law, no family has to spend more than 8.5% of their household income on their monthly health insurance bill.
I helped one family who makes a household income in the low six figures– over $1,000 per month.
Networks
All the Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans in Texas have networks.
Do you have a doctor you see regularly and want to keep seeing? If so, you’ll want to make sure they’re in an insurer’s network.
Every health insurance company maintains a network of hospitals and doctors that it works with. Except in an emergency, many times carriers won’t pay anything if your doctor is out of network. And money spent out of network doesn’t count toward your deductible –or– your Max Out of Pocket.
How do you know which insurance plan is best for you?
Generally healthy?
Are you generally healthy and see a doctor only a few times per year? If so, you might be a great fit for a low-premium, high-deductible plan, where you’ll pay a lower monthly rate but would pay more out-of-pocket in an emergency or for any unexpected health needs.
Chronic Illness?
If you have an existing health issue or chronic illness, or if you tend to see specialists regularly, it might make sense to pay a higher monthly premium but have fewer out-of-pocket expenses—because doctor visits and diagnostic tests are more likely to be covered by your insurer.
Metal Tiers
On the insurance exchanges, you’ll see health plans divided into tiers: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. Bronze plans will have the lowest monthly premiums, but the highest deductibles, whereas Platinum will have the highest premiums but the lowest deductibles; and Silver and Gold are in the middle. I’ve never seen a Platinum Plan for Texas.
Catastrophic Plans
If you’re under the age of 30, catastrophic plans might be available if you qualify for a hardship or affordability exemption. These plans have very low premiums. But sometimes a Bronze or Silver plan is a better value. Especially, if you can get a Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR).
Act Now for Open Enrollment 2022
If you want health insurance starting February 1, 2022, you have to act now. Open Enrollment 2022 ends on January 15.
There are already 12 million Americans in these plans. You should join the club!
About Me
I help Texans get health insurance. I’m licensed by the state of Texas, and my services are at no cost or obligation to you.
You can read about me here: https://houstonhealthandlife.com/about-me/ —
You can schedule a call with (phone, zoom, in person) at: https://calendly.com/danieloconnell/discovery60min
–This article was adapted from here.
