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If you’re looking to get insurance from the Health Insurance Marketplace, you have until January 15th to sign up. But dishonest companies sometimes advertise comprehensive health insurance when it’s really a medical discount plan or a health plan with limited insurance benefits. And, sometimes, an insurance “offer” is just a scam. As you compare your options, here are some things to consider:

  • Know some warning signs. If ads for the so-called insurance focus on free stuff you’d get if you sign up — like money for groceries — and downplay the coverage, take a much closer look to really understand what you’d be getting.
  • Don’t pay for help enrolling. It’s free to sign up through the Health Insurance Marketplace. And don’t pay anyone who says you have to give them cash, cryptocurrency, or your credit or debit card numbers to get or keep your health coverage. No matter who they say they are.
  • Compare and sign up at the source. Go to HealthCare.gov or call the Marketplace Call Center (1-800-318-2596) to get help or sign up.

You can also get free help from professionals:

  • Assisters, organizations and individuals in your community, give free, independent advice, answer questions, and help you apply for and enroll in any Marketplace health plan. They can also help you apply for free or low-cost Medicaid or Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) coverage.
  • Agents/brokers can answer questions and help you apply and enroll in the Marketplace health plans they sell, which may not be all the plans available to you. Insurance companies pay them when they sell their plans. Agents and brokers can also refer you to get help for Medicaid or CHIP coverage.

Time is of the essence: sign up by December 15 for coverage starting January 1. Open season ends on January 15 for coverage starting February 1.

Spot a scammy healthcare ad? Tell the FTC at ReportFraud.ftc.gov. 

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