Key takeaways
If your family grows during the year, you’re likely eligible for a special enrollment period. There are several situations that can trigger the SEP in this case.
If you become a dependent or gain a dependent as a result of any of those circumstances, you and your dependents are eligible for a 60-day special enrollment period, on or off-exchange.
If you get married, you can add your spouse to your plan or shop for a new one.
If you get married, you have the opportunity to add your spouse to your plan, or shop for a new plan. You have 60 days to enroll, and the effective date will be the first of the month following the month you submit your enrollment.
So if you get married on June 5 and enroll in a new health plan on June 30, your coverage will be effective on July 1. Because of the flexibility with effective dates, it may be beneficial for newlyweds to utilize their special enrollment period even if they get married during open enrollment.
For example, a couple who gets married on Nov. 26 and enrolls in a new health plan on Nov. 28 can get a Dec. 1 effective date if they utilize their special enrollment period. Since open enrollment would be ongoing at that point in the year, they’d also have the option of enrolling without a special enrollment period, but their effective date would be Jan. 1.
Under a rule change that took effect in 2017, newlyweds are only eligible for a SEP if at least one spouse already had coverage for at least one of the 60 days prior to the wedding. There are exceptions if they were living in a U.S. territory or foreign country prior to the marriage, or were both in the Medicaid coverage gap and their combined income moves them out of it, or are Native American; as noted above, there’s also an exemption if they lived, prior to getting married, in an area where no plans were available in the exchange, although there are no areas where that has happened.
In addition, since the 2017 rule change, the marriage SEP can no longer be used as an opportunity to upgrade to a higher metal level, unless the newlyweds are newly eligible for cost-sharing reductions (CSR), in which case they can switch to a Silver plan in the exchange, regardless of what metal level each person’s coverage was before the wedding.
As of 2022, there is also an option for people receiving CSR benefits on a Silver plan to switch to a plan at a different metal level if they experience a change in household income (relative to the federal poverty level) that makes them newly ineligible for CSR. HHS has also finalized a rule change for 2022 that allows people who are newly ineligible for premium subsidies to switch to a plan at a lower metal level. Changes in family size can result in changes in subsidy eligibility even without the household’s income amount changing, since both household size and income are used to determine the household’s income as a percentage of the federal poverty level.1
If you gain a dependent due to birth or adoption, you’re eligible for an SEP.
If you gain a dependent or become a dependent as a result of a birth or adoption, you’re eligible for a special enrollment period. But HHS placed restrictions on this SEP as of 2017. The parents do not have to have individual-market coverage at the time of the birth/adoption for the SEP to apply, but if they are, they can either add the child to their current plan (or another plan at the same metal level, if for some reason, the child cannot be added to the existing plan), or they can enroll the child alone in a new plan at any metal level.
If the parents are not insured at the time of the birth/adoption, they can enroll in a plan at any metal level, along with the child. (It’s noteworthy, however, that rules issued in 2018 clarify that the SEP is intended to apply to both the person becoming a dependent as well as the person gaining a dependent. As such, the 2018 rule states that the person gaining a dependent “may enroll in or change coverage along with his or her dependents, including the newly-gained dependent(s) and any existing dependents.”
This would seem to indicate that the new parent does have the option to switch plans as a result of this SEP, but it’s unclear how this meshes with the 2017 market stabilization rule. And the current rules outlined in the Code of Federal Regulations are in agreement with the 2017 rule, clarifying that the new dependent can be added to the enrollee’s existing health plan or the dependent can enroll on their own in any separate health plan.2
If a child is placed with you for foster care or adoption, the date that you become responsible for the child’s care (meaning the foster care placement date) is the qualifying life event, even if an adoption or foster agreement is pending and has not yet been finalized.3
The special enrollment period runs for 60 days following the birth, adoption, or placement for foster care/adoption. The coverage effective date is typically backdated to the date of the birth/adoption/placement, but at the enrollee’s request, the exchange can allow for an effective date of the first of the month after the birth, adoption, or placement for foster care/adoption, or for the first of the second following month if the enrollment is completed after the 15th of the month in a state that still uses that deadline. Starting in 2025, all states will allow coverage to take effect during any special enrollment period, so the 15th-of-the-month deadline will no longer apply in any state in 2025.
Does pregnancy cause a special enrollment period?
In most states, pregnancy does not trigger a special enrollment period. HHS considered this, but clarified in 2015 that they had decided not to include pregnancy as a qualifying life event.4 This means that in most states, the special enrollment period tied to having a baby does not begin until the baby is born.
But state-run exchanges (there are 20 of them as of the 2025 plan year) can add additional special enrollment period access that goes beyond the federal requirements. Some of them do allow a special enrollment period triggered by pregnancy. This gives a pregnant person access to health coverage during the pregnancy, rather than having to wait until the baby is born to obtain coverage. As of 2024, pregnancy is a qualifying life event in the following state-run exchanges:
In the rest of the country, the special enrollment period is only triggered by the birth, not by the pregnancy.
But it’s important to note that pregnant people qualify for Medicaid (and in some states, CHIP) with higher household income than non-pregnant adults. So even if you wouldn’t otherwise qualify for Medicaid, you might find that you do if you’re pregnant. If a pregnant person is applying for Medicaid, they are also counted as two people (or more, if there are multiple babies) for Medicaid eligibility determination purposes.5
This helps to increase access to coverage for someone whose income would otherwise be too high to qualify for Medicaid, since both income and household size are taken into consideration when determining where a household is in relation to the federal poverty level.6 And Medicaid enrollment runs year-round, so if you’re uninsured and pregnant, check to see if you might be able to enroll in Medicaid to have coverage during your pregnancy.
A child support order is a qualifying life event.
In 2015, HHS added child support orders to the list of qualifying life events under the category of gaining or becoming a dependent. The court order can be a qualified medical child support order or other order from a state or federal court that requires the dependent to be covered under a health plan.
The special enrollment period continues for 60 days following the date of the court order. HHS finalized slight rule adjustments in 2018 to align the effective date rules for gaining a dependent as a result of a child support order with the effective date rules that apply to other circumstances in which a person gains a dependent. So coverage is typically backdated to the date of the court order, but at the enrollee’s request, the exchange can allow the enrollee to select an effective date of the first of the month following the enrollment.7
SEP restrictions
The Marketplace stabilization rule that HHS finalized in 2017 added restrictions to the SEP, however, including requirements that at least one new spouse already had health insurance coverage in place before the marriage (previously, both spouses could be uninsured before the marriage and would still qualify for a SEP), and that these SEPs cannot be used to “upgrade” coverage to a different metal level – so new parents who already have insurance can add their baby to their plan, or can purchase a separate plan for the baby alone, but cannot switch the whole family to a plan at a higher metal level during the SEP.
In other words, two uninsured people cannot get married in order to gain access to a SEP, and the SEP triggered by gaining a dependent cannot be used as an opportunity for the parent to switch to a plan at a different metal level.
In 2018, HHS clarified that while the SEP for gaining a dependent or becoming a dependent applies both on- and off-exchange, it does not apply independently to existing dependents. So if Sue already has two children and then gives birth to a third child, she can enroll in a new health plan (subject to the restrictions described above) by herself, or she can enroll with some or all of her dependents on the plan. (Note that for this purpose, “dependent” includes anyone who can enroll in the plan due to their relationship to the qualified individual, so it includes her spouse as well as her children.)8 She also has the option to enroll just the new baby on the baby’s own plan. But she does not have the option to enroll only her two older children on a new plan.
HHS also clarified that the prior coverage requirement would be waived if the applicant lived (prior to the qualifying life event) in an area where there were no plans available in the exchange. There were concerns heading into 2017 and 2018 that some areas would end up with no exchange insurers. But that no longer appears to be an issue, as insurers joined or rejoined the exchanges in large numbers starting in 2019, and insurer participation has remained robust in most states.9 In most areas of the country, Marketplace enrollees can choose from among multiple carriers’ plans.10
Louise Norris is an individual health insurance broker who has been writing about health insurance and health reform since 2006. She has written dozens of opinions and educational pieces about the Affordable Care Act for healthinsurance.org.
Footnotes
- “2024 Poverty Guidelines” U.S. Department of Health & Human Services. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “45 CFR § 155.420 (4)(i)” Code of Federal Regulations. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “Federally-facilitated Exchange (FFE) Enrollment Manual” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Accessed Sep. 17, 2024 ⤶
- “Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2016” A Rule by the Health and Human Services Department. Feb. 27, 2015 ⤶
- “Special Populations: Pregnant Women Fast Facts for Assisters” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “2024 Poverty Guidelines” US Department of Health & Human Services. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “45 CFR § 155.420(b)(2)(i)” Code of Federal Regulations. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “45 CFR § 155.420(a)(2)” Code of Federal Regulations. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “Number of Issuers Participating in the Individual Health Insurance Marketplaces” KFF.org. Accessed Aug. 28, 2024 ⤶
- “Plan Year 2024 Qualified Health Plan Choice and Premiums in HealthCare.gov Marketplaces” Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. October 25, 2023. ⤶
