You Can't Buy Health Insurance. Anywhere. After April.

After April, it's no longer available for year-round purchase. You can't switch plans, either. Not until Nov 15. Some temporary plans "may" be offered, but they won't cover pre-existing conditions and won't exempt purchasers from the O'care penalty--er, fine--er, tax.

Limited exceptions apply: losing a job that provided insurance, moving to a new state, getting married, having a baby or losing coverage under a parent's health plan

So people can't wait until they need it to purchase.

"It's a little-noted consequence of President Barack Obama's health care overhaul." Seems to me that all the unsavory consequences have been "little noted."

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Here's more fallout from the health care law: Until now, customers could walk into an insurance office or go online to buy standard health care coverage any time of year. Not anymore.

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insurers consider it too risky now that the law prohibits them from rejecting people in poor health.

"If you didn't have an open enrollment period, you would have people who would potentially enroll when they get sick and dis-enroll when they get better," said Chris Stenrud, spokesman for insurer Kaiser Permanente. "The only insured people would be sick people

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eHealthInsurance.com, which sells policies from 200 companies across the nation, said at this point he knows of none planning to offer major medical insurance after this month, except to people with qualifying life events.

For people trying to get an off-marketplace plan through an open enrollment extension, some insurers are selling them through April 15, and others through the end of the month. Purpura said eHealth will offer such plans in at least some areas of these states: Arizona, California, Georgia, Hawaii, Louisiana, Maryland, Michigan, Nevada, New Mexico, Ohio, Oregon, Utah, Virginia and Washington state.

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