May 9th, 2011 – Colorado’s Division of Insurance just issued clarification pertaining to a new bill that was signed into law in April 2011 regarding Child-Only health insurance policies.
The law changes the open enrollment period for health insurance carriers offering child-only health insurance plans for applicants under the age of 19 to August of 2011. While applications must be submitted in the month of August, in some cases (like with Kaiser) the actual effective dates for coverage may be as far out as October 1st, 2011.
After August 1st, 2011, the next open enrollment periods will be January 1st, 2012 and July 1st, 2012.
The only exceptions to the open enrollment periods is if a Qualifying Event occurs. A “Qualifying Event” includes birth, adoption, marriage, dissolution of marriage, loss of employer-sponsored insurance, loss of eligibility under the Colorado Medical Assistance Act in Parts 4, 5, and 6 of Title 25.5 of the Colorado Revised Statutes, loss of eligibility under the Children’s Basic Health Plan in Article 8 of Title 25.5 of the Colorado Revised Statues, entry of a valid court or administrative order mandating the child be covered, or involuntary loss of other existing coverage for any reason other than fraud, misrepresentation or failure to pay premium.
You can read the full text of the Colorado Division of Insurance’s guidance document here.
XXXXX thru XXXXXXXXXX was responsible for having my disability and my insurance health coverage dropped and also was responsible for having me “involuntarily terminated” from my job because of their “over the phone” examination. I was terminated from my position at XXXXXXXXX while I was on disability leave and was at the time considered an full time employee.
Alan, Sorry I had to edit your comment. We don’t represent your old company or even write group business with the insurer you mentioned, but I can see that you are very upset with them. You may wish to contact the Colorado Division of Insurance and file a complaint.
I hope this information proves helpful for your situation: You should look at CoverColorado.org and/or GettingUsCovered which both serve Coloradans with difficult to insure health conditions. You can find more Colorado public program options you may be elgiible for as well. Take care!!