Changing Your Benefits
What to Know
While Open Enrollment is your annual chance to review and make changes to your benefits (including whom you cover), certain life events provide you with an opportunity to change your benefits outside of Open Enrollment.
Open Enrollment
Open Enrollment generally takes place May 1–26. Changes made during Open Enrollment are effective July 1.
During Open Enrollment, you’ll get information about plan changes that affect you, and details about how to make changes.
Life Events
Certain changes in your life — such as marriage, divorce or the addition of a child — allow you to make certain changes to your benefits outside of Open Enrollment. This is known as a qualified status change or qualified life event. If you experience a qualified life event, you have 30 days from the date of the event to make changes to your benefits.
Qualified life events include:
- Marriage or a domestic partnership of at least 6 months
- Birth or adoption of a new child
- Death of spouse/domestic partner, divorce, legal separation or annulment
- Loss of insurance coverage due to termination, reduced or increased work schedule, change of residence or worksite, or if you become ineligible for Medicaid/Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
- Becoming eligible for a state’s premium assistance program under Medicaid or CHIP
How to Make a Change
If you experience a qualified life event, review step-by-step instructions [PDF] to make changes to your benefits.
