Hi friends,
Welcome to the most wonderful season of the year, folks. Open Enrollment!
This is the time of the year in the U.S., between November to December (but check your specific provider to be sure), when folks can make changes to their health insurance plans that will take effect the next calendar year. Unless you had a qualifying event during the year, like moving or having a baby, that allowed you to make health insurance changes outside of the open enrollment period, your window for making changes to your insurance is now.
When I evaluate my health insurance options and try to understand it all, it feels like having sand thrown at my eyeballs. Sometimes it makes me feel like a big, dumb idiot. And it almost always leads to me yelling, “Why is it like this?!” at my computer screen. Even though I already know how we got here, by default, not by design.
I’m not a health insurance expert, but I’ve found a few resources that may help anyone looking to spend time they’ll never get back on learning how to better navigate the pesky hellscape we call the U.S. healthcare system:
- Health Sherpa has free tools to help you compare plans, and you can even get help from a healthcare advocate.
- The award-winning reporter, Daniel Weissmann, has a couple of resources. A podcast called An Arm and a Leg and an email newsletter called First Aid: A newsletter meant to help you fight a brutal enemy — the American healthcare system. Because if we’re going to change this system, we have to survive it in the meantime.
- And Dr. Noor, a medical doctor turned health care expert. She’s coming at health care from a unique, insider perspective. She’s got some free resources on her site, but she also offers free 15-minute consultations.
If you know of other great resources for help navigating insurance and the health care system, please share them with me! Thank you! Your favorite finance friend,
