Oklahomans who missed open enrollment but still need health insurance can check with a Healthcare Navigator to find out if they are eligible for a special enrollment period in the online Marketplace.

Approximately 40 specially trained and certified Navigator assisters – all attorneys, paralegals and legal support staff from Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma and professionals from collaborating nonprofits – stand ready to help Oklahoma citizens understand their health insurance options including private coverage on the Marketplace.

To find out if they are eligible for special enrollment, Oklahomans need to call or text the statewide Navigator line at 405-313-1780, leave a message and a Navigator will return the call as soon as possible.

The last special enrollment period (SEP) was Nov. 1-January 15 when any Oklahoman could sign up for a Marketplace health insurance policy.

Now that open enrollment is closed for the year, SEPs are available for people in certain situations who, often through no fault of their own, need insurance coverage.

These situations include people who have lost the insurance coverage they obtained through their employer or are experiencing certain other “life events” which require new insurance policies. A person’s employer may eliminate coverage for employees, decrease or change coverage so the policy no longer contains essential benefits or may require employees to pay a bigger share of the premium, all situations in which employees may not be able to afford the coverage.  Also, employees can be terminated, thereby eliminating their health insurance through work and requiring them to obtain coverage on their own.

Life events which allow an SEP include relocation to a new location which may have different insurance and medical service providers; getting married and needing family coverage; getting divorced and losing coverage provided by former spouse; having a baby or adopting a child and needing coverage to include the new child.

Nearly 200,000 Oklahomans enrolled in the Healthcare Marketplace during this year’s open enrollment period, a 10 percent increase over last year and an increase of nearly 20 percent over 2020.

This year’s increase in Marketplace enrollments came during the first year of the expansion of Medicaid, known as SoonerCare in Oklahoma.

The expansion raised the income levels of people eligible for SoonerCare, allowing about 40,000 Oklahomans who had bought insurance in the Marketplace to move to SoonerCare.

Legal Aid Services of Oklahoma is a not-for-profit law firm providing free civil legal assistance to eligible low-income individuals and their families and to elderly persons in the areas of family, consumer, housing, health and employment.

Legal Aid attorneys and staff work through a network of fully-staffed law offices and satellite offices, serving eligible clients in all 77 counties of Oklahoma. Funding for Legal Aid is from the Legal Services Corporation, the State of Oklahoma, the Oklahoma Bar Foundation, 16 United Way or United Fund organizations, aging agencies across the state and attorneys, law firms, foundations, businesses and individuals.

Legal Aid offers Navigator services as a result of a Navigator Grant from the federal government.