Losing your health insurance rarely comes with much warning. A layoff. A divorce. A reduction in hours. A spouse's job change. A move to a new state. Life shifts, and suddenly the coverage you counted on is gone, right when things already feel uncer
Open Enrollment is one of the most important windows of the year for you and your family's health and financial protection. It's your chance to make sure your coverage still fits your life, not just the life you had when you signed up last year.
Under federal law, young adults are allowed to stay on a parent's health plan until age 26. It's a great safety net through college, first jobs, and the early chaos of adulthood. But once that birthday hits, most plans require you to be removed.
A lot of people believe that if you miss Open Enrollment, you're simply out of luck until next year. It's one of the most common misconceptions I run into, and it stops people from getting coverage they actually qualify for right now.
Most people pick a health insurance plan once, and then never think about it again until something goes wrong. A claim gets denied. A doctor turns out to be out-of-network. A premium jumps and nobody knows why.
Insurance isn't something most people think about until they need it. A few common mistakes can quietly leave families exposed right when they can least afford it.