The deadline to open enroll for health insurance via the Affordable Care Act Insurance Marketplace is December 15th. Iowa Insurance Commissioner Nick Gerhart reminds people to sign up before then to have coverage starting January 1st. People can still sign up before December 31st, but anyone after the 15th may not have coverage until February or March. Gerhart says the enrollment period was adopted at the inception of the Affordable Care Act, because they needed to make sure people weren’t just hopping off and on insurance plans to spend less money. He explains, “The reason it’s an enrollment period is because now these products are guaranteed issue without underwriting. So anybody can buy it regardless of health status. Before you had to go through underwriting and be screened, and you might have had preexisting conditions and other things excluded. That doesn’t apply to these plans, and so one of the trade offs for the industry was we need to have a prescribed enrollment period.”

In order to enroll using the Insurance Marketplace, people need to go to healthcare.gov and view policies available in their area. On the website there is a help tag for people who may be confused about what coverage is best for them. Gerhart recommends people do some research before signing up for a plan. In certain area counties this can be even more important, as they only have one insurance provider to choose from. Medica is the only insurance company providing coverage through the marketplace in all 99 Iowa counties. In Louisa, Iowa, Keokuk and Jefferson Counties they’re the only option. Gerhart emphasizes there are several policies people can choose from, and Medica is a non-profit provider so there’s little worry they’ll take advantage of people. Gerhart recently announced his resignation as Iowa’s Insurance Commissioner effective December 23rd, after serving nearly four years at the post. However, he doesn’t anticipate his absence to adversely affect Iowans signing up for the Insurance Marketplace this year.