Why not just get on your husbands insurance now?

We tried but It’s not a “qualifying event” or “open enrollment”

I believe you can decline Masshealth coverage and that counts as loss of coverage, which is a qualifying event.

Oh this is great news, thank you so much

Declining Masshealth coverage is NOT a qualifying event. Loss of coverage must be involuntary to count as a qualifying event. You are still eligible for Masshealth due to the Public health emergency but you have to report that you're married if you live together and make sure that Masshealth has all your current household information.

Once the public health emergency ends, if you don't qualify for Masshealth after being re-determined, then that is a qualifying event and you would use the termination letter from Masshealth (bring it to husband's employer) to open a Special Enrollment Period for you.

I’m honestly confused, how is marriage not a life event for health insurance. According to this link it is.

healthcare.gov

Great question, marriage is a life event. But I had insurance at the time when we got married so I didn’t switch in sept.

Mass Health is not kicking anyone off right now because MA is still in a state of emergency because of COVID. So if that gets extended past 3/1/23 then you won’t get kicked off after that date either. The way things have been going with the government they seem to keep delaying and delaying or extending and extending. So I have paperwork with masshealth I haven’t passed in but yet here I am and still have masshealth no problem. They legally can’t kick anyone off even if they’re income is too high or they don’t actually qualify for masshealth anymore, which it sounds like you probably don’t because you are married now and with your husband’s income you wouldn’t and with his insurance you wouldn’t. But if you voluntarily cancel your masshealth you cannot sign up again based on your current income because you would not quality anymore. Unless you lie which is obviously illegal. So I do not suggest cancelling your masshealth until they kick you off. You can add your husbands to it as a secondary insurance when there is open enrollment. Pregnancy isn’t a qualify event? I thought in insurance terms pregnancy is considered a disability.

Thank you SO much, you were correct (I was ok the phone for 4 hours today)😅 they said because of the state of emergency they won’t kick me off and once they take the state of emergency away they will update the people at that time kicking them off.

They just said I had to add my husbands info/income so they had it but won’t effect my coverage until they end the state of emergency.

I'm not the person you were responding to but I think the public health emergency is already considered over. I'm on Mass Health and have been since 2005 and yet had to go through a redetermination in 2022 to ascertain that I was still eligible for it otherwise they were going to terminate my Mass Health coverage. Mass Health has also reinstituted prescription drug copays, etc.

It's not. It's set to end in April and then Masshealth will be taking the next 12 months to make re-determinations for all 2.3 million Masshealth members.

> they were going to terminate my Mass Health coverage.

No, they weren't. The system has generated the same form renewals that generically say 'You must respond by this time in order to keep benefits', but Masshealth members received separate letters explaining the COVID protections.

> reinstituted prescription drug copays, etc.

There have always been Rx copays of $0, $1, or $3.65, depending on the medication. However, every Masshealth member receives a notice informing them of their monthly copay cap, which is dependent on their income.

Yes, they were going to terminate my Mass Health coverage. I not only received the letter but was told the same thing over the phone by a supervisor. I never got any letters explaining COVID protections. During COVID there was no RX copays and there has been for sometime now.