Open Enrollment for Health Insurance

Most health insurance plans have open enrollment periods when you’re allowed to start, stop or make changes to your health insurance coverage. Your open enrollment period depends on how you get health insurance.

Marketplace (Obamacare) open enrollment

Marketplace health insurance plans, sometimes called Obamacare plans, are private coverage for individuals and families. They’re available on the federal health insurance marketplace at HealthCare.gov or from a state-based marketplace, depending on location.

Open enrollment for marketplace health insurance runs from Nov. 1 to Jan. 15 each year. But there’s a smaller window if you want coverage that starts in January.

• If you sign up from Nov. 1 to Dec. 15, your coverage starts on Jan. 1.

• If you sign up from Dec. 16 to Jan. 15, your coverage starts on Feb. 1.

Some states that operate their own state-based marketplaces rather than using the federal marketplace have different dates for open enrollment. You can visit HealthCare.gov and select your state to see how to sign up.

You need to qualify for a special enrollment period to sign up for marketplace health insurance outside of the regular Obamacare open enrollment period. You might become eligible for a special enrollment period because of qualifying life events such as getting married or divorced, having a child, moving or losing other health coverage.

» MORE: How to choose health insurance

Open enrollment for employer-sponsored insurance

Employers can choose their own open enrollment periods for employee health insurance. If your health insurance comes from an employer, your open enrollment period might change each year.

Fall is a common time for open enrollment for employer-sponsored health coverage. There’s no set length for employers’ open enrollment periods, but most last for two to four weeks.

Your employer’s open enrollment period might also be when you sign up for other benefits, such as group life insurance.

Medicare open enrollment

Medicare is health insurance coverage for people age 65 and older or people of any age who have certain disabilities.

You first sign up for Medicare in your initial enrollment period. This period lasts for seven full months, generally starting three months before the month when you’ll turn 65 and ending three months after your birthday month.

(If your birthday is on the first day of the month, everything shifts one month earlier, so your initial enrollment period starts four months before your birthday month and ends two months after that month.)

After your initial enrollment, Medicare has different annual open enrollment periods for different kinds of coverage:

• Medicare open enrollment: From Oct. 15 to Dec. 7, you can join, switch, or drop Medicare Advantage and Medicare Part D plans.

• Medicare Advantage open enrollment: From Jan. 1 to March 31, you can switch to a different Medicare Advantage plan or drop your plan to go back to Original Medicare and join a Medicare Part D plan.

Outside of initial and open enrollment periods, you might qualify for a special enrollment period following certain life events such as moving or losing other health coverage.

» MORE: Best Medicare Advantage plans

Medicaid and CHIP open enrollment

Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) provide free or low-cost health insurance coverage to qualifying people with low income and certain children, parents, pregnant people, elderly people and people with disabilities.

You can sign up for Medicaid and CHIP any time throughout the year.

» MORE: Medicare vs. Medicaid: What's the difference?