By Alaina Kennedy
The open enrollment period starts today, Nov. 1, 2017 and ends on Friday, Dec. 15, 2017. The health insurance marketplace is stable despite repeal efforts dominating the news and claims made by Donald Trump.
What you need to know to get enrolled in 2018:
- The 2018 open enrollment period starts today, Nov. 1, 2017 and ends on Friday, Dec. 15, 2017.
- New plans and prices are available each year, and plans may be more affordable than you think. Make sure to shop around.
- Free, local help is available.
- To find someone in your community certified to sit down with you for free and schedule an appointment for help with the enrollment process, you can call AFC’s informational hotline at 312-784-9060 to speak with a certified in-person counselor who can answer your questions and help facilitate your enrollment into a health care plan. The phone line is open Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. CST. In addition, you can visit www.getcoveredillinois.gov and click “Make an Appointment” or you can visit http://www.ilcha.org/help.
- Be aware of scheduled downtimes on healthcare.gov.
- During the open enrollment period, HealthCare.gov will be down periodically for scheduled maintenance. This is unprecedented. Outlined below is a general schedule for planned downtime:
- Wednesday, November 1, 2017 – overnight
- Sundays 12am-12pm ET, except on December 10, 2017
- The duration of the outages are the maximum amount of time allowed for the maintenance. Actual outage times could be shorter.
For more information visit, healthcare.gov or the AIDS Foundation of Chicago’s Open Enrollment Help Center.
