Covered California: Open Enrollment Starts November 15th!
Covered California is gearing up for its second open enrollment period. The goal is to renew coverage for approximately 1.2 million consumers and grow the program by an additional 500,000 in 2015. Current Covered California enrollees can renew their coverage now, but any changes to insurance coverage must wait until the start of open enrollment on November 15th. Consumers who fail to respond or report a change will automatically be re-enrolled into health coverage on December 15th, which is also the last day to select a health plan for coverage starting January 1st. Open enrollment ends on February 15th.
Covered California health plans have started to send individual renewal notices to enrollees this week. The notices contain enrollees’ 2014 premium and subsidy information. However, those numbers may change for 2015 so it is important that consumers shop first to see if there is a better value before they default into a plan.
As part of the ramp up for open enrollment, Covered California announced its plans to fund 227 Navigator groups to help with renewals and enrollments and started its $74 million marketing campaign that will run through the open enrollment period. Covered California has pledged to engage in more targeted marketing efforts to multicultural consumers as part of this second round. This is especially important given the fact that 2014 enrollment numbers were lower than anticipated for Latinos and African Americans as well as for those whose preferred language is a language other than English.
This month’s Covered California Board meeting is cancelled, but meetings will resume in November. Go to hbex.coveredca.com for more information.