Get Health Insurance Help

Pathways

Seven pathways to health coverage

Each pathway starts from a situation and explains the coverage options, the deadlines and the questions to have ready before you contact official help. Start with the first if you are unsure when you are allowed to sign up.

  1. Pathway 01

    When you can sign up: Open Enrollment and Special Enrollment Periods

    How the yearly Open Enrollment window works, which life events open a Special Enrollment Period, and which kinds of coverage you can apply for any time.

  2. Pathway 02

    I lost my job: keeping or replacing your health coverage

    What happens to job-based coverage when work ends, how COBRA works, how a Marketplace plan or Medicaid compares, and the deadlines that matter.

  3. Pathway 03

    I'm turning 26: leaving a parent's health plan

    Why coverage on a parent's plan ends at 26, when it actually stops, and the options that open up: your own job's plan, the Marketplace, Medicaid or COBRA.

  4. Pathway 04

    I'm starting a job: understanding a job-based plan offer

    How to read a job-based health plan offer, what a waiting period is, how job-based coverage affects Marketplace savings, and how to handle a gap before coverage starts.

  5. Pathway 05

    Low income: how Medicaid and CHIP work

    What Medicaid and the Children's Health Insurance Program cover, why the rules differ by state, how income is counted, and how to apply at any time of year.

  6. Pathway 06

    I'm turning 65: Medicare basics

    The parts of Medicare in plain language, the seven-month Initial Enrollment Period, what changes if you are still working, and why late enrollment can cost more.

  7. Pathway 07

    Self-employed: buying your own plan on the Marketplace

    How self-employed people get coverage through the Marketplace, how to estimate income that changes from month to month, what metal levels mean, and why updates matter.