It’s Renewal Time!

Have you been anxious about the rates for next year’s plans? The wait is over, as the plan rates have been released for the upcoming year.

What is a renewal period?

If you aren’t aware, renewal is the time when you want to review your application and check to see if there are any changes that need to be made for next year’s coverage effective Jan. 1.

Some common things you will want to consider on your renewal application are:

• Changes to your tax filing household
• Changes to your income estimate
• Changes to coverage that’s being offered (for example, do you now qualify for coverage with your employer?)
• Changes to contact information

For next year’s health plan, you will want to take these things into consideration:

• Budget (did the rates change? do you qualify for a different amount of financial assistance)?
• Medical needs (do you anticipate needing surgery or any other major medical services?
• Are your doctors and medical groups still going to be in-network?
• Will your prescriptions still be covered?

This is the time for you to make changes and if you happen to make a change that you didn’t want, you can still typically make these changes until Dec. 31st in order for it to take effect Jan. 1st.

This year’s open enrollment period will run from Nov. 1, 2026 through Jan. 31, 2027.

If you miss your open enrollment, you will need to qualify for a special enrollment period. Want to see what other qualifying life events qualify you for a special enrollment period? Check out: special enrollment period. Just remember to make use of your 60 day enrollment period before it passes you by.

What is a special enrollment period?

What this means is most people usually have to wait until open enrollment to sign up for a health plan (usually in the fall of each year) for coverage effective Jan. 1st of the following year.

If you have a qualifying life event (such as marriage or entering domestic partnership), you have 60 days from your event date to sign up for a plan through Covered California!

Take note- if you or your spouse have coverage offered through your employers, you’ll also definitely want to look into that.

And if you qualify financially, you may also want to take a look at Medi-Cal.

Here’s what you should consider:

Enrolling on a health insurance plan can be pretty daunting. You need to make sure to find a plan based on your current medical needs.

If you happen to want to start family planning, make sure that your plan is a fit for your pregnancy needs.

For example if you’re seeing a specialist who you want to continue seeing, you need to make sure to enroll in a new plan where that specialist is in-network with. Other things to consider would be your primary care doctor, hospital facility, medical group, prescription medication needs, and more.

Working with a Covered California Certified Agent doesn’t cost you anything extra.

Your premium would be the same whether you work with an agent or not. I would rather you choose the right plan based on your budget and needs than to choose a wrong plan that costs too much or provides too little coverage based on your needs, ultimately leading to your plan coverage terminating because you’ve changed your mind (P.S. changing your mind unfortunately doesn’t count as a qualifying life event for a special enrollment period).

Feel free to reach out and we can help with a needs analysis to see which is the best fit for you! Call us at (626)399-7082 or by filling out a contact form and we’ll reach out to you.

We’re here to help!