If you need to get health insurance that starts Jan. 1—or want to switch plans for next year—Monday is the last date you can do it. That's the first deadline of the current open enrollment season on the state Health Insurance Marketplaces.
If you wait until Tuesday to sign up for or switch health insurance plans, your coverage will start on Feb. 1. If you wait to sign up for health insurance until after Jan. 15, your new plan will start on March 1.
If you enrolled in a Marketplace plan last year, it will automatically renew unless you go back in and review your options. We strongly recommend that you do this. If you don’t, you could end up paying more than you need to for coverage in 2015.
If you’re not sure where to start, or where you stand, use our free online tool, , to figure out your options. We also have other online resources and information on our main health insurance page.
Enrollment this season is going briskly, according to the latest figures from HealthCare.gov, which handles enrollment for 37 states. As of Dec. 5, 1.3 million customers had selected a plan, of which 52 percent were returning customers renewing coverage, and 48 percent were brand-new customers.
