Covered California Enrollment Extended Again, Until Mid-May

Image: @zvessels55 via Unsplash

Yesterday was Jan. 31, which was supposed to be the last day for 2021 open enrollment in Covered California, the state-level Obamacare marketplace for lower-cost subsidized insurance. Good news, procrastinators! You now have until mid-May to sign up, as Covered California has announced a “special enrollment” period that extends enrollment through May 15, 2021.

NEWS: California Joins @POTUS in Responding to #COVID19 Pandemic by Announcing Special Enrollment to Help People Get Insurance through #CoveredCA. https://t.co/z9BG77TQ1m

— Covered California (@CoveredCA) January 29, 2021

And it’s a good thing, because being the broke-ass procrastinator that I am, I was signing up yesterday thinking it was the deadline. And sure enough, the site went kablooey on me, on the last day of enrollment! (NOTE: I was able to refresh the page and continue, but doing so took me back to the beginning of the enrollment, and I had to fill out a bunch of fields I had already filled out before. JFC.)

There are some additional bullshit problems you may encounter. For instance, you need the Tax ID Number for every company you work for. In this contractor, gig-economy era, you may work for a number of different companies. If any of them have not sent you your 1099 tax forms yet, you may not have that information to complete (though you can always go back and revise that information, but that’s going to affect your eligibility numbers).

Credit where credit is due, this is happening because of one of Biden’s executive orders. Covered California says in a press release that “The move follows President Biden’s executive order to declare a special enrollment period from Feb. 15 through May 15 for the 36 states served by the federally facilitated marketplace, reopening the doors to coverage for millions of Americans.”

You can enroll for health insurance at CoveredCA.com. Your coverage will begin on the first day of the month after you’ve completed your enrollment.