California Health News

Covered California Extends Open Enroll Until December 22 For 2018

Covered California Exchange for Health Insurance.

Deadline for January 1 Coverage Extended to December 22

The plan selection deadline for a January 1, 2018 coverage start date has been extended to Friday, December 22 to accommodate increased interest in enrollment for the new year. Plans selected between December 23, 2017 and January 15, 2018 will have a February 1, 2018 coverage start date.

Today, we announced the deadline extension in a press release. Over the past three days, Covered California has seen more than 38,000 new consumers sign up for coverage, which means that as of December 13 more than 182,000 new consumers have signed up for coverage since open enrollment began. Compared to the same time last year, when 156,000 had signed up — this enrollment marks an increase of 26,000 or 17 percent. Many of them are taking advantage of the fact that the cost of coverage is lower than last year for most consumers.

Note: This does not mean that off-exchange health plans will also be accepting enrollments through December 22nd. Unless announced by the health insurance company, the deadline for off-exchange is still December 15th. Oscar Health Plans has extended their off-exchange enrollment deadline to December 31st for plans to be effective January 1, 2018.