How Long Does Health Insurance Take To Start? 
The answer to your question will vary somewhat depending upon where you are getting your health insurance . Are you a new employee anticipating your employer based coverage ? Or , are you a person looking for a personal , individual major medical insurance plan ? After January 1 , 2014 in the employer based setting and under the requirements of the Affordable Care Act , once you are hired as a full-time eligible employee or your hours are increased to full-time status , then the employer can not have a waiting period that exceeds 90 calendar days from the date you become eligible . So , an employer can have a waiting period of anywhere from `` date of hire '' to the 90 calendar days from date of hire . For administrative and payroll keeping purposes I am finding most employers are opting for a policy on a new hire becoming eligible for coverage on the `` first day of the month following 60-days '' . In the individual health insurance world we do have to keep the new open enrollment periods in mind and how failure to enroll during this annual election period can impact a person 's eligibility for health insurance coverage between open enrollment times . In other words , if you `` just did n't get around to it '' and you 've had no change of life status event since open enrollment closed then you ca n't take out a major medical health insurance policy until the next open enrollment period for a 1st of the year start date at best . -LRB- If you qualify you can take out a Short Term Medical policy to carry you through until then -RRB- Assuming yours is a normal individual major medical enrollment then the following rules of thumb apply to when your effective date of coverage is supposed to be ; 1 -RRB- Completed enrollment form submitted on or before the 15th of the month will be for an effective date of coverage of the first day of the next month . For example , an enrollment submitted on December 10th would be for an effective date of January 1st . 2 -RRB- Completed enrollment form submitted after the 15th of the month will be for an effective date of coverage of the first day of the following month . For example , an application is submitted on December 20th would be for an effective date of February 1st . Open enrollment season for 2015 begins on November 15th , 2014 and runs through February 15th , 2015 . 