Grace periods are not always graceful
New Year - new blog posts. Giving you the info you need!
Most people know they have a grace period to pay their insurance premiums. However, you have to be careful and follow their rules or you may find out you have lost your coverage even if you always pay your premiums.
For starters you have to make your first payment of the year for the coverage to "start". Some companies won't even send you your paperwork until they get that first payment. Here is the link from healthcare.gov on the subject - https://www.healthcare.gov/apply…/complete-your-enrollment/…
They call this payment the binder payment and it secures your contract. Most of the Texas companies have extended that payment to 1/31 but not all of them. The 60 days grace that is part of the ACA for payments does not apply to binder payments.
After the first payment, your subsequent payments will be due sometime around the first of the month. If you can - set up an autopay plan - then you are safe from forgetfulness. If you pay your premium late the 60 day grace period clock starts ticking. This clock may pause ticking when you make a payment but it will NOT stop ticking until you make your next payment on time. For example - your February payment is due on the 5th and you pay on the 15th. Well within your grace period so no worries. Then you do the same thing in March. You did not just use 10 of 60 days twice in a row - you used 40 days (let me round it off please) - 10 late in February then pause then when you were late again in March they add the whole time in between so 40. If you pay on the 15th again in April you will add another 30 days which means 70 total and you have gone over your 60 days grace period. At this point the insurance company MAY cancel your coverage effective back to when you started paying late (they would have to refund your premiums). Now you've lost coverage and no special enrollment period because it was due to lack of payments. I have occasionally seen these cases reinstated if the person can pay all owed in full including the next month but not often.
Not all of the companies will cut you off like this or this quickly but some will. Pay attention to when you pay the bills and if you have a late one - pay on time or early the next month to get that grace clock reset. Autopay is really your friend here!!
If you have questions or lose coverage there are options so let me know if you need help!