It's time for the Annual Open Enrollment Period Deadline Extensions...

It's turned into an annual tradition: The official annual ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) runs from November 1st - December 15th, but most of the state-based ACA exchanges have later deadlines. hThen, right around the 12/15 point, it begins: One by one, some of the state-based exchanges announce further extensions of their deadlines to #GetCovered for the upcoming year.

In some cases they simply bump out the deadline for coverage starting in January, with the final "hard" deadline for February or March coverage staying where it is. In other cases they were never allowing Open Enrollment start dates past January to begin with, so it's the hard deadline which is being extended.

In any event, here's this year's batch of announcements; note that this list could grow longer over the next week or two:

• CALIFORNIA: Covered California has always made their full OEP run through the end of January, but they usually make 12/15 the cut-off for coverage starting January 1st. A few days ago they announced that due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, for the first time, they're bumping out the initial deadline (for January coverage) until 12/30.

• COLORADO: Connect for Health Colorado's original deadline for January coverage was 12/15, but this morning they announced that they're tacking on an extra three days. Coloradoans now have until Friday, December 18th to enroll for coverage starting January 1st. After that, they'll still have until January 15th to enroll for coverage starting February 1st.

• CONNECTICUT: Access Health CT's original hard deadline for 2021 coverage was on 12/15, but this morning they announced that they're extending the deadline by a full month, through January 15th, 2021. It's important to note that coverage for those who enroll between today and 1/15 won't start until February 1st, however.

• PENNSYLVANIA: Pennsylvania's brand-new ACA exchange, Pennie, is allowing Open Enrollment through January 15th, but the deadline for coverage starting January 1st was supposed to be 12/15. This morning they announced (via Twitter...no press release yet) that they're extending the January-start deadline out by one week, through December 22nd.

• UPDATE: IDAHO: It looks like Your Health Idaho is also allowing those who submitted a 2021 enrollment application by midnight on 12/15 another full week (thru 12/22) to actually select a plan and enroll in a policy for coverage starting in January. Huh. That's not quite the same thing, but worth mentioning. Thanks to Louise Norris for the heads up.
• IDAHO UPDATE x2: OK, strike that: Your Health Idaho just announced that they're extending the open enrollment deadline for January coverage out to December 31st after all!
   
• UPDATE: NEW YORK: New York State of Health has extended their initial deadline for January coverage from 12/15 to 12/31.

Note that these changes are in addition to the original extended deadlines for many of the state-based exchanges. Here's a summary of the deadlines for every state as of this writing (I'll update the table if anything else changes):