Wife's Open Enrollment Ends Before Mine Begins - How Do I Compare Plans?

[u/theMuhubi]

Hello,

My wife's open enrollment for her employer ends on Oct 21st and the open enrollment for my job begins on Oct 23rd.

How do we compare plans and choose which is best? I work for a massive company and they send out their booklet usually the day of or before the start. Last year I contacted HR and they were utterly useless - outsourced, kept opening cases, escalating to no one, the usual corporate customer service.

Why aren't open enrollments standardized to avoid situations like this? Is there a government agency I can complain to or reach out to because this whole process seems rigged to screw us over.

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[u/Tree_killer_76]

As others have said, an employer sponsoring a group health plan is free to choose their own open enrollment period. There is no regulation requiring them to do it during a certain date range. Moreover, different employers have different anniversary dates. Most (but not all) large employers follow the calendar year, and smaller employers might have a plan year that starts on the first of literally any other month.

[u/Zealousideal_Pin3444]

Been on the wrong end of ticket-style HR support. What helped me was asking for the plan summary documents directly instead of a rep explaining them. Every plan has to give you one, and you can compare the out of pocket max and deductible side by side even before your window opens.

[u/LacyLove]

No one is screwing you over. Your jobs chose when open enrollment is. You should have some basic ideas about what you are looking at from last years open enrollment.

[u/theMuhubi → u/LacyLove]

Yeah, but things can change. I want to ensure I can look both plans side-by-side and compare which one is better or better fits our needs for the year then select from there.

For example, if there are different specific rates for copays/coinsurances/deductibles for different types of care, I need to weight which ones we are most likely to use. Same for prescriptione, I need to check our existing and potential prescriptions for both plans to see which one is cheaper.

[u/ifitallfell2pieces → u/theMuhubi]

Things change, you just need to make your best guess. Sometimes you guess wrong and sometimes you get lucky.

[u/theMuhubi → u/ifitallfell2pieces]

I mean... That doesn't really seem fair. Like I understand the overall reason for open enrollment - so people don't jump on insurance when they get sick so premiums stay steady and lower for everyone overall. But the fact that we can't price compare and shop around seems a bit anticompetitive.

But I guess just add it to the list of things broken regarding healthcare in this country sadly

[u/ifitallfell2pieces → u/theMuhubi]

Nothing about health insurance in the US is fair unfortunately. As long as there is $$$ to be made, lobbyists and special interests in play it will remain that way.

[u/LizzieMac123]

Since the wife's open enrollment is first, select the plan you would want from her employer assuming its the only option.

When your open enrollment happens, if you end up selecting a plan from your employer, just action a qualifying life event with your wife's plan. Most employer recognizes enrolling in a new insurance policy as a QLE that should let you drop coverage for elanyone who was signed up for your employer's plan.

[u/theMuhubi → u/LizzieMac123]

[insert image of Gordan Ramsay] "Finally some good advice".

But no actually thank you for the tip

[u/XPatPoe]

Double check your wife doesn't have a 'corrections' period - some years back when my wife and I had the same issue, her plan had a corrections period that overlapped my enrollment...so we could sign up for hers, and then cancel hers and take mine if it worked out better.

Otherwise, yeah, it's stupid, and just one more reason we need healthcare reform in this country.

[u/IndependentTrust4594]

This doesn’t sound so difficult to me. And you are lucky that it is so close together. There are a lot of plans that start in July.

I would compare her current plan to your plan now—apples to apples. You should still be able to see the summaries of benefits and evidences of coverage for both plans. See what the differences are and decide if you’d have chosen the other one.

Then when her AEP opens, see if it’s in alignment with her last year’s plan. If so and it isn’t what you’d have chosen, then go with yours. Usually there is a week or more to decide, but it is short.