Deadlines Nearing For ACA Special Enrollment, COBRA Coverage

CNBC: No Health Insurance? There's Still Time To Sign Up Through Marketplace
If you don’t have health insurance, you have a few weeks left to sign up for for low- or no-cost private coverage through the public marketplace. A special enrollment period that opened Feb. 15 and closes Aug. 15 allows individuals to use healthcare.gov (or their state’s exchange) to sign up for a plan, which might come with significant subsidies to reduce what you pay for coverage. Unless you have a qualifying life event — i.e., getting married, having a child, etc. — after the current window closes, you’d generally have to wait until open enrollment this fall to sign up. (O'Brien, 7/27)

KHN: Sign-Up Window For Free COBRA Coverage For Many Laid-Off Workers Closes This Week
After being laid off from her job as a systems analyst for a specialty chemicals company in December, Gabriela de Pompignan opted to hang on to her former employer’s insurance coverage under the federal law known as COBRA. Typically, laid-off workers pick up the total cost of premiums under COBRA, but her company paid roughly 75% of the expense for the first six months, leaving de Pompignan with a $659 monthly bill for the family plan covering her, her husband and their 9-year-old son. Since both de Pompignan and her husband, a lawyer, were unemployed, her company’s temporary financial support was crucial to making their premiums affordable. What de Pompignan didn’t realize, however, was that she was eligible for an even better deal. Under the American Rescue Plan Act that President Joe Biden signed in March, COBRA premiums for laid-off workers are covered in full by federal funding for six months from April through September. (Andrews, 7/28)

KHN: Bye-Bye To Health Insurance ‘Birthday Rule’? Kansas Lawmaker Floats Fix
When Kayla Kjelshus gave birth to her first child, the infant spent seven days in the neonatal intensive care unit, known as the NICU. This stressful medical experience was followed by an equally stressful financial one. Because of an obscure health insurance policy called the “birthday rule,” Kjelshus and her husband, Mikkel, were hit with an unexpected charge of more than $200,000 for the NICU stay. Now, seven months after KHN and NPR published a story about the Kjelshus family’s experience, new parents may be spared this kind of financial uncertainty if lawmakers pass a bill that would give parents more control when it’s time to pick a health insurance policy for their child. (Anthony, 7/27)

KHN: Women Say California Insurer Makes It Too Hard To Get Drug For Postpartum Depression
When Miriam McDonald decided she wanted to have another baby at age 44, her doctor told her she had a better chance of winning the lottery. So when she got pregnant right away, she and her husband were thrilled. But within three days of giving birth to their son, in September 2019, everything shifted. “I was thinking, ‘Oh my God, what did I do?’ I just brought this baby into this world and I can barely take care of myself right now,” she recalled. “I feel exhausted. I haven’t slept in three days. I haven’t really eaten in three days.” (Dembosky, 7/28)

Georgia Health News: Northside, Major Insurer Near Deal To Resolve Contract Disputes 
Just days before a contract cutoff date, UnitedHealthcare and Northside Hospital are moving toward a deal that would keep three of the Atlanta-based system’s hospitals in the insurer’s network. An agreement also would bring Northside’s hospitals in Lawrenceville and Duluth back into the insurer’s fold after five months out of network, a UnitedHealthcare official said. “We are working closely with Northside to finalize the contract and hope to be ready to announce the agreement soon.” Cole Manbeck, a United spokesman, said Tuesday. (Miller, 7/27)