What do I need to know about open enrollment in 2025?

In this super concise guide, we'll tackle the 5 most frequently asked questions about Open Enrollment to get you started on your shopping experience.

What is open enrollment?

Open enrollment is the annual period when individuals have the opportunity to enroll in a marketplace health insurance plan. This period runs from November 1 to January 15 in most places, with a few exceptions.

You have from November 1 to December 15 to enroll in coverage that will start on January 1. If you enroll between December 15 and the January 15 deadline, your coverage will start on February 1 in most states. (Open enrollment dates differ for individuals who are 65 and older and shopping for Medicare.)

Unless you have a qualifying life event — like being offered StretchDollar's ICHRA health plan by your employer — individuals must buy health insurance during this period or risk having none for the rest of the year.

• Open enrollment 
  • Nov 1 - Dec 15 = Jan 1 start date
  • Dec 16 - Jan 15 = Feb 1 start date

Why a limited time period?

Insurers have set up this limited enrollment timeframe to tackle a problem called adverse selection. Basically, adverse selection happens when only sick people sign up for health plans, and the healthy folks don't bother. This messes up the whole concept of spreading out the risk and makes health insurance less effective.

How do employees renew their health insurance?

If you're satisfied with your marketplace health plan and the insurance company is offering it again in 2025, you can simply renew your plan. In most cases, you'll be automatically enrolled (you won't have to do a thing). Just make sure to check with your carrier to ensure that's the case!

If there have been any changes that affect your premium, like adding or removing dependents, or if you've recently moved, you'll probably need to go shopping to select a plan that works best for you. (If you’ve moved outside of a plan’s service area, you may not be able to enroll in that plan next year.)

What's new in 2025?

The biggest change will be the cost. Health insurance premiums for marketplace are expected to increase by around 7%. This is mostly due to inflation. (Yup, health care is a laggard when it comes to inflation.) This is slightly more than last year, but less than the jump for small group health plans (9%).

Good news — we also expect to see more variety and options from health insurance carriers such as disease specific plans and free telemedicine. Why? As marketplace enrollment soars, carriers are incentivized to come up with new options to win over customer.

Have questions? Contact customer service at support@stretchdollar.com.