I have never heard anyone call it annual enrollment in my life. There is an open enrollment period when anyone can apply, and outside that window it takes a qualifying event. It’s an anti-competition crapfest in both cases.
I’m aware of what it is, I just know it’s complete bunk. The stated reasons it exists is to align health insurance contracts to ensure that you can’t pick up and bail from insurance and thus ruin the actual pot of money being used to pay for health coverage, but at best that’s an excuse since you can just have people sign up for a contract for a set period of time like basically every other system in existence. As a (poor) example, cell phone companies lose money on hardware sales in order to make money on the contracts because the cost is for a fixed period of time.
[quote=“quorihunter, post:4, topic:102894”]
I find it hard to believe a typo would leave you without insurance until the next window. Most record keepers are open to correcting an issue from the enrollment window; though it is why there are multiple warnings stating to check the information carefully to ensure accuracy. Additionally, many windows even upon closing have a grace period of a week or two to correct found issues prior to the new year and coverage beginning. Some plans allow for wholesale changes to coverage based on certain life events such as death, marriage, divorce, birth, etc.
[/quote]OK, so let’s break this down for a second using my most recent example.
- I apply for family dental coverage
- Person submitting it to Metlife clicks the wrong box
- Having been signed up for individual dental coverage, the enrollment window closes
- After the grace period I receive my card
And now I get to hear about how it’s my fault my coverage is wrong when I submitted all the proper paperwork and someone else screwed the pooch, and that absolutely nothing can be done until the next enrollment period. It’s fun to be on the phone for hours to be told this days later from some supervisor that half-read the case. I love that this isn’t even the first time this has happened, and last time it left me without health insurance.
If I hear “oh, well you should have received a confirmation email/letter that confirmed your coverage. Since you didn’t reply with changes you agreed to the terms of the insurance” again…
