How Do You Buy: Health Insurance

Depending on your situation, you have several avenues for purchasing:

You can generally only buy health insurance during two specific times: how do you buy health insurance

A window outside of Open Enrollment triggered by "qualifying life events," such as getting married, having a baby, or losing existing coverage . 2. Choose Where to Shop Depending on your situation, you have several avenues

Plans are categorized by how they manage their provider networks: Primary Care Physician (PCP) Required? Referral Needed for Specialist? Out-of-Network Coverage? No (Except emergencies) PPO Yes (At a higher cost) EPO No (Except emergencies) POS Yes (At a higher cost) How to Get Marketplace Health Insurance | HealthCare.gov Depending on your situation

The annual window for anyone to sign up or switch plans. For 2026 plans, this is January 15, 2026 in most states.