The state has extended the opportunity for residents to enroll due to the public health emergency.
Maryland has announced that it is extending its health insurance open enrollment period, making possible for residents of the state to continue signing up for their coverage at the state’s marketplace.
Residents of the state will be able to keep enrolling for coverage through the Maryland Health Connection.
The state’s health insurance marketplace will stay open for enrollment until the end of February. The original deadline had been January 15. Governor Larry Hogan announced that the window, which opened on November 1, 2021, would have its deadline extension until the end of next month.
A record number of Maryland residents have already enrolled for 2022 coverage, according to a media release published by the Hogan administration. The extension is meant to make it possible for even more people across the state to get the coverage they need as the COVID-19 pandemic emergency persists.
“One of the many lessons of the pandemic is how important it is to have access to affordable and reliable health coverage, and we are fortunate to have a health exchange that is a national model,” explained Governor Hogan in a media statement about the extension.
The extension is available to residents enrolling for health insurance in the state’s exchange.
The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange was created in 2011 to provide state residents with access to an Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) marketplace. The state runs its own exchange, unlike many that use the federally operated option instead.
The marketplace was developed to make it possible for state residents to learn about and identify affordable healthcare plans. This is especially true for consumers whose coverage is not provided through their employers.
There are 181,603 state residents already enrolled for health insurance coverage this year. This represents a 9 percent increase over the numbers from 2021, which already broke records in the state. Demographics that had historically gone without coverage – including young adults as well as Black and Hispanic communities – have seen particularly higher enrollment rates as of the initial November 1 to January 15 window.
