You may still have time to get health insurance if you missed Friday’s open enrollment deadline.
Those who live in an area that received FEMA aid following Hurricane Irma now have until December 31 to call the federal marketplace or enlist the help of a marketplace navigator to help them sign up, according to Healthcare.gov.
“Anyone in S.C. affected by the storm can benefit,” said Palmetto Project director of programs Shelli Quenga in a press release issued Monday. “All they have to do is provide the marketplace call center with a statement saying they were affected by the storm, and they can enroll before December 31.”
This means that residents in all of South Carolina’s 46 counties — along with the Catawba Nation between North Carolina and South Carolina — can claim the extension thanks to FEMA public assistance, according to Quenga.
Consumers who were waitlisted due to high call volumes on Dec. 15 can also jump back in line.
“A lot of people who tried to call the call center were placed into a waitlist situation,” said Palmetto Project executive director Steve Skardon in the release. “This means healthcare.gov will be calling people back today and tomorrow. We don’t want people to wait though – call them back if you are worried you may have missed the call.”
Consumers are also eligible for a special enrollment period if they qualify for Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (or recently lost qualification for either), lost coverage due to a change or loss of employment, lost coverage due to divorce, experienced domestic abuse, became newly eligible to pay for a plan while living (or previously living) in a state without a Medicaid expansion, aged out of their parens plans, or lost coverage due to their policy year ending, according to healthcare.gov.
Consumers can contact the federal marketplace at 1-800-318-2596 or make an appointment with a Palmetto Project marketplace navigator by calling 1-888-998-4646 or clicking here.
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