Kaiser Permanente More Than Individual and Family Health Insurance

There's a deadline to apply for health care coverage, whether you apply during open enrollment or during a special enrollment period.

In general, you can only change or apply for health care coverage during the yearly open enrollment period. But if you have a qualifying life event, you may be able to change or apply for coverage for a limited time before or after this event occurs. This is called a special enrollment period.

To qualify for a special enrollment period, you must:

• Have a qualifying life event
• Have proof of your life event
• Apply within 60 days of your life event. For some qualifying life events, you can enroll before the date of your event.

• Getting married
• Having a baby
• Losing coverage because you lost your job

The special enrollment period generally lasts 60 days from the date of your qualifying life event. For example, if you have a baby on June 1, you have 60 days — or by July 30 — to apply for coverage.

Even if your qualifying life event happens during open enrollment, you’ll still have a special enrollment period.

If your qualifying life event is a loss of coverage that you know about in advance, you may be able to apply for new coverage ahead of time. In this case, you have 60 days before and 60 days after the event to apply.