Booksellers: Contact LIG Solutions About Medicare Open Enrollment

Medicare’s open enrollment period for 2021 begins Thursday, October 15, and runs until December 7. Booksellers who are eligible for Medicare or have questions about their eligibility should contact ABA’s membership health insurance partner LIG Solutions for a no-obligation health insurance assessment. 

During the Medicare open enrollment period, Medicare plan enrollees can make changes to their health insurance plan by switching, dropping, or adding coverage.

Booksellers under 65 can also start preparing for the open enrollment period for Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage in the Marketplace. Most states’ open enrollment periods to add, drop, or make changes to Affordable Care Act coverage in the Marketplace run from November 1 to December 15. The Marketplace is operated by the federal government through HealthCare.gov for most states, though some states have their own Marketplaces with slightly different open enrollment periods. Contact LIG Solutions to find out if your state has a different open enrollment period.

There are two important points to consider going into open enrollment:

• Deadlines are real. Booksellers must contact LIG Solutions within the open enrollment periods. For example, you will not be able to call LIG Solutions on December 16 and expect the same wide array of coverage options available during open enrollment. Options are very limited outside of open enrollment.
• Be careful when “shopping around.” ABA partnered with LIG Solutions to offer booksellers a “one stop shop” for health insurance. However, if you plan to shop around with other health insurance brokers, be wary where you enter your phone number, since some brokers may sell that information.

For more information on open enrollment in general, including options outside of open enrollment, see this article on preparing for open enrollment this fall.

Booksellers can call or fill out the form on ABA’s landing page at any time to speak with an LIG representative about their specific health insurance options. These options are customized and flexible to specific needs. Although options are limited outside of open enrollment, LIG Solutions can walk booksellers through options to “bridge” coverage through the rest of the year.

ABA’s partnership with LIG Solutions allows ABA members to gain access to LIG’s extensive knowledge of the health insurance market, which helps members navigate a wide array of insurance options, including ACA-compliant major medical, Medicare/supplements, short-term policies, vision, dental, critical care, and supplemental coverage, as well as small group/Health Reimbursement Arrangement (HRAs) programs.

Find ABA’s LIG landing page, which has a dedicated phone number for members and a recorded webinar explaining the program under “For Booksellers” and “LIG Health Insurance” on Bookweb.org. (An ABA login is required to access the landing page.)

For more information about the membership health insurance benefit, see FAQs about the LIG partnership. For questions not answered by this FAQ, please contact ABA Director of Advocacy & Public Policy David Grogan at [email protected]. 

Booksellers should communicate with their manager before purchasing a policy as the bookstore may be looking into offering employees a health coverage option as part of the ABA partnership with LIG Solutions.