No Sleep 'Til Brooklyn: New York joins California & Massachusetts in announcing extension

And so, the Open Enrollment Period extensions are officially underway. I was expecting underperforming states like Washington and Minnesota to be the first out of the gate, but instead, the first three states to make formal announcements are California, Massachusetts and now, New York:

  • California: Yesterday, CoveredCA announced a 5-day "Waiting in Line" extension policy (ie, as long as you've started the enrollment process as of midnight on Sunday 2/15, you'll have until Friday, 2/20 to complete the process.
  • Massachusetts: Just a few hours ago, the MA Health Connector announced that due to getting slammed with 3 massive snowstorms in the past few weeks, as well as a 4th major one sweeping in right now, they're bumping out the full enrollment period (ie, no "have to be in line already" caveat) by a full 8 days, until February 23rd.
  • And just this moment, the New York State of Health has announced that like California, they're going the "Waiting in Line" route: Anyone who starts the process by midnight Sunday will have until February 28th to actually select a plan and check out. It's important to note that NY residents who enroll between 2/16 - 2/28 won't have their policy kick in until April 1st, however.

So, who'll be next? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller??

UPDATE: I've contacted several of the other states to see what their extension policies are (figured I should grab the bull by the horns, so to speak). So far:

  • Rhode Island says all is well, no plans for any sort of extension.
  • Vermont also says no extensions planned. They do note, however, that paper applications can be postmarked as late as Tuesday, 2/17 since there's no mail on Sunday or Monday (President's Day). I had honestly forgotten that some people are using paper apps...not many, I'd imagine, but every one counts...

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