Healthy Insurance Question

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. Why are there "open enrollment" periods for health insurance? Why can't you just start whenever you want to? Doesn't make much sense to me.

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to prevent people from going uninsured all year and then when they get ill or have an accident buy insurance to pay for their medical bills. Insurance only works if you are paying for it while healthy.

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I've been told that Obama's "you get a tax fine if you don't have healthcare" is a bit like the redlight ticket camera thing where they can't truly enforce it. Is this true or am I way off on that?

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I've been told that they cannot levy a separate penalty for being uninsured, that they can only take away from any money you might be owed in a refund/overpayment. I don't remember all the specifics, but I remember thinking that if you just ended up owing money every year, you'd never get penalized.

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I've been told that Obama's "you get a tax fine if you don't have healthcare" is a bit like the redlight ticket camera thing where they can't truly enforce it. Is this true or am I way off on that?

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The IRS is not allowed to use their collection powers (liens, levys, garnishments, etc) to collect the penalty. However, if you EVER are owed a refund, federal or state, they can keep some of it to apply to the penalty. Even if that refund is years later.

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Why are there "open enrollment" periods for health insurance? Why can't you just start whenever you want to? Doesn't make much sense to me.

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Because otherwise, on the way to the hospital, I'd call and sign up. However, when you start a new job, you are allowed to enroll no matter what time of year it is (you may have a waiting period for eligibility).

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Kinda annoying. I know they have these things in place to keep people from jobbing the system, but I was in the middle of a cross-country move, starting a new job and just genuinely forgot.

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Any possible qualifying events happen to you since your 31 day enrollment period closed? If so you can enroll now:

1.Change in legal marital status, including marriage, death of a spouse, divorce, legal separation and annulment.
2. A change in the number of dependents, including birth, death, adoption, and placement for adoption.
3. A change in employment status of the employee, or the employee’s or retiree’s spouse or dependent, including termination or commencement of employment, a strike or lockout, a commencement of or return from an unpaid leave of absence, a change in worksite, and a change in working conditions (including changing between part-time and full-time or hourly and salary) of the employee, the employee’s or retiree’s spouse or dependent which results in a change in benefits they receive under a cafeteria plan or health or dental plan.*
4. A dependent ceasing to satisfy eligibility requirements for coverage due to attainment of age, student status, marital status, or other similar circumstances.*
5. A change in place of residence of the employee, retiree or their spouse or dependent and the current carrier is not available.
6. Significant cost or coverage changes (including coverage curtailment and the addition of a benefit package).
7. Family Medical Leave Act (FMLA) leave.
8. Judgments, decrees or orders.
9. A change in coverage of a spouse or dependent under another employer’s plan.
10. Open enrollment under the plan of another employer.
11. Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) special enrollment rights for new dependents and in the case of loss of other insurance coverage.
12. A COBRA-qualifying event.
13. Loss of coverage under the group health plan of a governmental or educational institution (a state’s children’s health insurance program, medical care program of an Indian tribal government, state health benefits risk pool, or foreign government group health plan).
14. Entitlement to Medicare or Medicaid.
15. Any other situations in which the group health or dental plan is required by the applicable federal or state law to allow a change in coverage.

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Looked through the other exceptions and I don't qualify for any.

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I'm pretty sure your employer can speak with their insurance rep to add you...even if delayed. Provided there's records that you filled out the information when it was supposed to be completed.

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HR should easily be able to talk to the provider and backdate your coverage start date. Have they been taking premiums from your paychecks all this time too?

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I called Cigna and they said our policy was to file solely based on the exceptions mentioned above. I might speak with my HR directly, though, and see what they can do. The Cigna punk might have just not wanted to fillout the extra paperwork haha.

I had the same thing happen with my company and hr took care of it. It was with Cigna as well.

You may want to check into a sharing ministry. You can use them for the remainder of this year. (You can also keep them as secondary insurance in the future).