How to get Health Insurance without a Job

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When you lose your job, it can be extremely stressful, especially if you had health insurance through the job that you just lost. Luckily, you can still have health insurance if you don’t have a job. This does open up the question: how do you get health insurance without a job?

To get health insurance without a job, file for unemployment, apply for Health Insurance Marketplace, and see the offered insurance plans that match personal eligibility. Some of these plans include Medicaid, COBRA, or CHIP. Insurance plans need to be updated after a person gets a new job.

If you or someone that you know is in need of health insurance and isn’t currently employed, this information can be incredibly helpful. Keep reading to learn more about how to get health insurance as an unemployed individual and which health care plans are available for people in this situation.

File for Unemployment

To get health insurance when you don’t have a job, the first thing you need to do is file for unemployment. After you file for unemployment, you can qualify for special health insurance plans that you can use until you have a new job that has health insurance benefits.

To file for unemployment, visit the unemployment website of the state that you live in and fill out the form that you will find on it. This should be clearly labeled and only requires some of your basic personal information and potentially some information about your previous employment and medical history.

Start Looking for Insurance Options

After you file for unemployment, in order to get health insurance, you need to start looking into your options. It is important to look at the cost, coverage, and requirements for each healthcare plan so you can make the best decision for yourself and your family. Here are some health insurance policies that you should look into.

Marketplace Insurance

Anyone who is unemployed should first apply for coverage through the official Health Insurance Marketplace. This is the first step to take because it lets you know what plans you are eligible for. From there, you will be more informed of your options and can make the best decision for your specific situation.

Those that enroll for Marketplace Insurance are offered affordable health insurance plans that include savings based on a person’s income and household size.

Applying to the Health Insurance Marketplace

The only requirement to apply for this coverage is that you are a US citizen or legally present within the US and hold a current and proper VISA. People who apply for Marketplace coverage will need to estimate their income for the current calendar year as part of the application process.

Marketplace Insurance has an open enrollment period each year that usually is between November and December 15th, during which the general public can buy a health insurance plan that will be in effect in January.

This enrollment period is available for people who have lost their health insurance because they lost their job within that year. These individuals will be able to purchase an insurance plan outside of the open enrollment period when doing so through this channel. They will also be eligible for premium tax credits and other savings based on their income amount and total household size.

Marketplace Plan Details

After filling out a Marketplace application, you can discover which forms of coverage plans you qualify for. The Marketplace insurance plan option offers premium tax credits and savings on deductibles, copayments, and other out-of-pocket costs based on income and household size. This option allows for people with very low incomes to pay very small premium prices.

The Medicaid option offers coverage to millions of Americans who have disabilities or limited incomes and is provided through the government. The Children’s Health Insurance Program, or CHIP for short, offers health insurance coverage for kids and pregnant women in some states.

Families whose gross yearly income exceeds the limit for Medicaid but do not earn enough to pay for private insurance often use this option so that their children will have at least some level of health insurance coverage. After submitting a Marketplace application, you will receive an eligibility determination via mail or email. This will inform you of the type of health care coverage that you and your dependents qualify for.

Canceling Marketplace Plans Later

When you are able to find a new job and are newly employed, you are then able to accept any health care coverage offered by this job and cancel the plan that you secured as an unemployed individual. It is rather easy to cancel the Marketplace plan after getting a new health insurance plan. This Marketplace coverage should be canceled after you know the start date for the new health insurance plan.

Medicaid

Medicaid is known for offering care to qualifying Americans in need of affordable, low-cost, or free health insurance coverage. Those within the appropriate income range and who have disabilities qualify for a Medicaid plan.

You can apply for Medicaid through the Health Insurance Marketplace, which will allow the agency located within your home state to contact and inform you of whether or not you qualify for Medicaid. You can also apply directly through your state’s Medicaid agency. Both of these options work, so it is up to you which way you apply.

Some Medicaid programs will pay for your medical care directly, while others might offer coverage through private insurance companies.

COBRA

The Consolidated Omnibus Budget Reconciliation Act, or COBRA for short, is a health insurance program that helps people after they have become unemployed. If applicants have employer-sponsored health coverage, their employer will stop paying its share of their health insurance premium after the covered individual loses their job or when they are otherwise declared ineligible. COBRA allows people to continue their health insurance coverage as long as they are willing to take over the full cost of the health insurance premium.

However, COBRA isn’t available for everyone. For instance, some employers are required to offer COBRA coverage while others are not required to do so. Keep in mind that smaller businesses are less likely to offer COBRA coverage.

In order to qualify, employers need to be enrolled in the employer-sponsored health insurance plan on the day that someone loses their job, and they must have had it for more than 50% of the employer’s business days during the previous calendar year. Individuals with employers that offer coverage from COBRA will have a minimum of 60 days to enroll in continued coverage after losing their job.

COBRA is generally a more expensive option than alternative insurance options. You also have to determine how much money your previous employer paid each month for your health insurance coverage before you apply for COBRA.

Some plans found in the health insurance Marketplace may very well cost less money each month, but for some individuals, it may still be worth it to go with COBRA because of what their previous health insurance plan covered. This is why it is so important to compare and contrast insurance plans before making your selection.

However, you can only stay on COBRA insurance for 18-36 months.

Short-Term or Temporary Health Insurance

Short-term health insurance, which is sometimes called temporary health insurance, is a good option for many unemployed individuals. If an individual does not qualify for the above insurance options but they still need to be covered by health insurance, short-term health insurance may be the best choice for them. These temporary or short plans often have cheaper monthly premiums than more long-term plans.

Keep in mind that temporary health insurance plans can still come with cons, such as lower annual maximums and non-ACA-compliant plans. There is an entire spectrum of temporary healthcare plans to pick and choose from, so research accordingly for the best option for you. Many people choose to get temporary health insurance from Pivot Health.

Purchase a Plan on Healthcare.gov

Healthcare.gov is a wonderful resource to use for interested parties. Under this organization, you have four plans to choose from: Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. This allows you to choose a plan that fits your budget requirements, as each plan costs a different amount of money each month.

Healthcare.gov has plans and network types such as PPO, POS, EPO, and HMO, some of which will allow those insured under the plan to go to nearly any doctor or healthcare facility. However, other plans may limit where you can go to get medical care or charge more if providers and doctors outside of their network are used.

Look into High-Deductible Health Care Plans

High-deductible health care plans often have the lowest payment requirements. Sometimes nicknamed HDHPs, they are advantageous because they are affordable health insurance plans that have fairly low monthly premiums.

One of their downsides is that these plans have higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums than health insurance plans, which means that more healthcare expenses are paid by you and not the insurer. Thanks to this, high-deductible health plans are the best choices for young, healthy individuals who don’t need to go to the doctor or receive emergency medical care often.

CHIP

CHIP, which is short for The Children’s Health Insurance Program, offers individuals low-cost or free healthcare coverage to kids if their parents are unemployed. You will likely qualify for CHIP if you don’t qualify for Medicaid. In some locations in the United States, CHIP also offers coverage for pregnant women.

Families that qualify for Medicaid have the option to insure their children under either Medicaid or CHIP for health coverage. People could apply to get CHIP insurance the same way as they would if they were applying for Medicaid, through either the health Marketplace or through the individual’s state Medicaid agency.

However, CHIP doesn’t offer health insurance coverage to adults, which means that this health insurance plan might not be the best one to enroll in unless you have multiple children in your family that need regular medical care.

Overall, you have a lot of health insurance plan options to choose from while you are unemployed. However, which one you choose to enroll in will vary depending on your family’s needs, your finances, and what medical care you want to be covered by insurance more than others. Before enrolling in a specific health care insurance plan while you are unemployed, look at all of your options so you can decide which plan is best for you.

Keep in mind that you might not need to get health insurance yet if you will likely get a new job that will offer you health insurance soon. However, it might not be the best idea to wait until you get a new job to get health insurance, as you never know when a medical emergency might occur, and you don’t want to have to pay for an emergency room visit bill if you don’t have insurance.

Now you know what your health insurance options are while you are unemployed! Keep in mind that after you apply for enrollment in a health insurance plan, it may take a few weeks for you to be accepted or hear back from the organization.

Health Care Sharing Ministries (HCSM)

Healthcare sharing ministries are non-insurance entities where members share a set of ethics or religious beliefs and also share medical expenses among the members in agreement and accordance with those beliefs. They are often nicknamed HCSMs for short. Although they are not traditional health insurance companies and do not count as minimum essential coverage under the ACA, all HCSM members are able to get an exemption from the ACA’s requirement that people maintain minimum essential coverage.

As of 2018, there are a little over 100 health care sharing ministries that have been certified by the federal Department of Health and Human Services. Their participants are eligible for an exemption from the ACA’s individual mandate penalty. In order to qualify for the exemption under the ACA, the HCSM needs to have been continuously sharing members’ healthcare costs since the end of 1999 or earlier.

Health Share Plans

Most people aren’t even aware that there is an affordable alternatives to Health Insurance – and it has been around for more than 40 years! So this isn’t a new concept.

Health Share Plans are an affordable and effective alternative to Health Insurance. They are primarily designed to help people with the large and unexpected medical expenses that may come their way.

Benefits of Joining a Health Share

Save Money: One of the biggest benefits to joining a Health Share is the amount of money you save. in fact, most people save up to 30-60% on their healthcare costs when they join a Health Share.

No Network Restrictions: Another benefit of joining a Health Share that you typically do not have any network restrictions to worry about. You get to go to the right doctor or healthcare facility that works best for you.

No Contracts: You can join a Health Share year-round and can cancel at anytime.

Ideal Candidates for Joining a Health Share

A Health Share is perfect for those that meet the following criteria:

• Under 65 years old
• Lives a healthy lifestyle and generally a healthy person
• Believes in the concept of sharing in one another’s medical burdens
• Wants to save money on their healthcare costs
• Wants help available to them in case of larger unexpected medical bills
• Needs flexibility to join or cancel at any time
• Wants to have the freedom to choose which medical professional they can see (without network restrictions)

There are hundreds of Health Share plans, but I narrow it all down with my post on the Best Health Share plans to choose from. You’ll quickly be able to find the best Health Share plan for your needs.