The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is being extended through May

Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein... by justin66 on Monday April 27, 2020 @07:47PM (#23001610)

There is a grace period before you have to start paying, and the dates should be on the letter you receive when you leave your employer. The grace period does not last forever, and when it's almost up, you need to pay several months at once to get coverage. (another comment suggests these rules might vary somewhat by state, and I'm sure that is also possible)

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Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein... by masonic on Monday April 27, 2020 @11:56PM (#23003196)

For ACA, policies, the grace period is forever. Job loss is a "life event" that lets you jump in any time, not just an arbitrary open enrollment window.

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Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein... by justin66 on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @01:00AM (#23003549)

The grace period to start paying for a plan under the ACA is 60 days, not "forever." It's true that you don't need to wait for open enrollment, a special enrollment period opens for you when you lose your job.

edit: I'm not sure there's any grace period at all with the ACA. You have 60 days to sign up, but unlike COBRA, I don't see any evidence you can start using the insurance without paying for it first, which is the nice thing about the COBRA grace period.

https://www.healthcare.gov/coverage-outside-open-enrollment/...

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Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein... by masonic on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @05:02AM (#23005117)

I was talking about California. CA has no such limitation right now.

https://www.coveredca.com/individuals-and-families/getting-c...

  I don't see any evidence you can start using the insurance without paying for it first,

Because there's no limitation on pre existing conditions, it's effectively the same. You can sign up the day you get sick and have a free ride until then. That's why the CBO scoring was all bullshit.

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Re:The San Francisco Bay Area shelter-in-place order is bein... by justin66 on Tuesday April 28, 2020 @08:22AM (#23006280)

> Because there's no limitation on pre existing conditions, it's effectively the same. You can sign up the day you get sick and have a free ride until then.

How does that work if you've suffered a catastrophic injury and you're not well enough to sign up until after you've been treated in the hospital for several days?

It's similar, but it doesn't sound like the COBRA thing, where you have the option to retroactively extend your employer's coverage, or not, for a couple of months and you can still visit the hospital the same as you always did (or not) because of the payment and notification grace period. If it turns out you didn't need the insurance, you don't need to pay for it.

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