When open enrollment ends for 2027 coverage, and why December 15 still runs your year

Open enrollment for 2027 coverage runs November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027 in most of the country. December 15 is the last day on HealthCare.gov to pick a plan that starts January 1 (December 31 in Nevada, California and several other states).

Both of those dates are correct as of today. Only one of them was ever in a courtroom.

I went looking this morning at the pages that come up first when you search for this, and four of the eight still had the old answer. Big sites. Sites that update monthly. One of them says every state now closes December 31, which was never true anywhere.

So here's the sequence, because the order is the whole story.

Last summer HHS finalized a rule that cut the enrollment window short. HealthCare.gov states would close December 15. State exchanges could go no later than December 31. The February 1 start date went away, so every plan picked during open enrollment had to begin January 1 or not at all.

A judge in Maryland threw that piece of the rule out on June 12. HHS appealed on July 16. Then on July 31, CMS issued a statement on a related case confirming enrollment on HealthCare.gov will run November 1 through January 15.

That statement is twelve days old. Most of the internet hasn't caught up.

The date that actually runs your year

Something got buried under the arguing.

Nobody sued over December 15. Nobody appealed it. Nobody filed a single brief about it. December 15 has sat in exactly the same spot through every version of this rule, and it is the date that decides whether you have insurance in January.

Pick a plan by December 15, coverage starts January 1. Pick one between December 16 and January 15, coverage starts February 1.

I call that the January 1 line. It's the only date in my own calendar, and it has never moved.

Which is why the fight matters less than it sounds like. Enroll on January 10, win every argument in the case, and you have still spent January uninsured or on a plan you didn't choose. The lawsuit is about whether there's a second chance. It was never about whether the second chance is a good outcome.

The part almost nobody explains

Miss December 15 and you don't get a blank slate. You get a plan.

Have marketplace coverage right now and do nothing? The exchange maps you to a plan and re-enrolls you into it. HealthCare.gov posts those auto-renewals to your account around December 16, one day after the deadline, and most state exchanges have already run the process by December 1. That coverage starts January 1. Whether you looked at it or not.

Then January belongs to that plan. Anything you choose between December 16 and January 15 doesn't begin until February 1, which means the weeks you spend still deciding are weeks you spend paying for something you were assigned instead of something you picked.

The January you didn't pick.

That has always been true. What's different this year is the price of it. Insurers filed a median 15% increase for 2027 across all fifty states, the second straight year of double-digit filings, with 51 carriers asking for more than 25%. Last year the median filing came in at 18% and finished at 20%. Auto-renewal used to mean a small drift in your premium. Now it can mean a different plan at a very different number, arriving in a month you can't undo.

I'm not going to tell you your plan is wrong for you. I don't know that. I am telling you the default is louder than it used to be.

Some states run their own calendar

Twenty-two marketplaces set their own dates. Here's where they stand this week.

If your state isn't listed, you're on HealthCare.gov: November 1 through January 15.

Note what the table does not change. December 15 is still the January 1 line in every row of it. A later deadline buys you a later start, not a later January.

Why I won't promise these dates hold

The appeal is calendared for oral argument in late October.

Read that again. A federal appeals court will hear arguments about when open enrollment ends two days before open enrollment opens. A ruling almost certainly lands after November 1, which means the back end of the window could move while people are already shopping. You can follow the docket yourself on the Georgetown litigation tracker.

There's a second moving piece. The enhanced premium tax credits expired at the end of 2025, the House passed a three-year extension back in January, and the Senate has done nothing with it since. If the Senate moves during enrollment, the math on every plan on the shelf moves with it.

Nobody can tell you today what December looks like. Anyone who says otherwise is guessing with a straight face.

One more thing about next year

This is the last open enrollment where doing nothing keeps you covered.

Section 71303 of the budget law ends passive re-enrollment for subsidized marketplace plans beginning with the 2028 plan year. Everyone will have to verify income and household information before coverage with a tax credit can take effect. More than half of enrollees currently renew without ever going back to the exchange, and that door closes a year from now.

Which makes this a strange year to practice a habit that stops working.

Questions I keep getting

When does open enrollment start for 2027 coverage? November 1, 2026 in every state except Idaho, which opens October 15, and Connecticut and Massachusetts, which open October 23.

When does it end? January 15, 2027 on HealthCare.gov and in most state marketplaces. Several states run later or earlier. See the table above.

What happens if I miss December 15? Coverage you pick between December 16 and January 15 starts February 1. If you already have a marketplace plan and take no action, you'll likely be auto-renewed into a mapped plan effective January 1.

Did open enrollment get shorter? The rule that would have shortened it was vacated on June 12, 2026 and is on appeal. For now, the window is the same length it's been in recent years.

Can I still enroll after January 15? Only with a special enrollment period from a qualifying life event. A move, a marriage, a birth, losing job coverage, and a few others open a 60-day window. Check whether you have one here.

Will these dates change again? Possibly. Oral argument is scheduled for late October. I'll update this page and date every change.

What I'd do

Put December 15 on your calendar, not November 1. November 1 is when the store opens. December 15 is when it closes on the only month that's hard to fix.

Log into your exchange account in early November and look at what you're being mapped to. Two minutes. That's the whole job, and it's the step people skip.

Check your own state marketplace before you trust any date you read online. Including this one. I'll date every update I make here. Most sites don't, which is exactly why you found a wrong answer in the first place.

And if you run a business and you've been waiting for November to cover your people, you're waiting for nothing. Small group plans start any month. Here's what your business already owes its employees.

If you'd rather not track a federal appeal to work out your own deadline, that's the job. Call me. I'm licensed in 34 states and I'll tell you straight if yours isn't one of them.

Stop assuming last year's answer is this year's. It wasn't true last year either.

Mary Jones, Jones True Insurance Solutions (702) 379-9084 · Book a call

Update log August 12, 2026: Published. Dates reflect the CMS statements of July 27 and July 31, 2026 and state marketplace announcements current to August 10.

Educational information only. Not legal or tax advice. Licensed insurance agent, NPN #20192176.