When Can You Drop Health Insurance? 
It depends upon whether you have individual or group health insurance . If you are covered under an individual health insurance policy you can terminate your coverage essentially at anytime . When I say essentially , if you 've made your monthly premium payment and decide in mid-month you want to cancel your coverage that cancelation almost certainly would n't go into effect until the first of the next month . It 's highly unlikely you would be allowed to cancel retroactively or get a prorated refund . Cancelling group health insurance coverage can be more complicated if your employer is using a Section 125 Plan and you are paying any portion of your premiums on a pre-tax basis . In this situation you are locked into your coverage until the next open enrollment period unless you experience what is called a change of life status event . This would be an event like getting married , divorced or having or adopting a child -LRB- to give the most common examples -RRB- . Simply deciding that you do n't want the coverage anymore or hitting a rough patch financiallyin and ofthemselves arenot a qualifying events under IRS guidelines and do not meet the criteria for terminating your group coverage . So , whether your employer has a Section 125 Pre-tax plan in place -LRB- and these days most employer 's do -RRB- is a key factor in determining whether or not you can drop your coverage at sometime other than the plan 's annual renewal . 