2027 open enrollment for self-employed health insurance: dates, deadlines and your next move

Sam Jaber, Licensed Health Insurance Advisor · Updated October 2026

NPN 20698748 · Licensed in 31 states · Licensing details

Short answer: open enrollment for 2027 coverage opens November 1, 2026. On HealthCare.gov it runs to January 15, 2027, and you need to pick a plan by December 15 for a January 1 start. Virginia stays open to January 29. What you should do in that window depends on one thing: whether your income gets you a tax credit.

• The dates in your state
• My income gets a credit
• I'm over the line and healthy
• I'm over the line with a condition
• I already have a plan
• The window already closed

Open enrollment is the one stretch of the year when anyone can sign up for a marketplace plan, switch plans, or drop one, with no life event required. If you run your own business, it is also the moment you commit to an income estimate for a year that has not happened yet, and that estimate decides how much help you get.

This page covers the calendar first, because the dates are not the same everywhere, and then walks through the situations people who work for themselves usually find themselves in. Find yours and skip the rest.

When 2027 open enrollment runs in your state

Most of the states Sam is licensed in send you to HealthCare.gov. Seven of them run their own marketplace with their own website, and a few of those set their own deadlines. Arkansas and Oklahoma run state marketplaces on the federal platform, so their residents enroll through HealthCare.gov on the federal dates.

Dates as each marketplace published them in early October 2026. The federal window was set by a 2027 rule that is still being argued in court, so if anything moves, the state or federal site you enroll on is the final word. Where a state site did not spell out its January 1 cutoff, we left it blank rather than guess.

On HealthCare.gov, a plan you choose between December 16 and January 15 starts February 1 instead of January 1. That one-month gap matters if your current coverage ends on December 31.

If your income for 2027 lands inside the tax credit range

For 2027 coverage, the premium tax credit stops at 400% of the federal poverty level. Using the 2026 guidelines, which are the ones that apply to 2027 plans, that is $63,840 for one person, $86,560 for a couple and $132,000 for a family of four. The figure that counts is your household's estimated income for 2027, and for a business owner that means profit after expenses, not gross sales.

If your number lands under the line, a marketplace plan with the credit applied is usually the most affordable coverage you can get, and plans sold off the marketplace cannot use the credit at all. The work in this scenario is getting the estimate right and picking the plan that fits your doctors.

The estimate deserves care for a new reason. Starting with tax year 2026, the IRS no longer caps what you repay if your advance credit turns out bigger than the credit you actually earned. A strong fourth quarter that pushes you over the line can mean paying back every dollar of help you took. The subsidy cliff guide walks through why that edge is so sharp.

If you'll earn too much for a credit and you're healthy

Above the line, the marketplace charges you the full price, and for many self-employed households that price no longer fits the budget. Open enrollment is still worth your attention here, because it is when you can see the full 2027 marketplace price for your household and set it next to the alternative.

The alternative for a healthy household is a private plan that is medically underwritten and built on a nationwide PPO network. The insurer reviews your health before it accepts you, which is how it can price below a plan that must take everyone. If you are accepted, your doctors across the country can be in network, not only the ones in your county. The process is laid out step by step in our guide to medical underwriting.

These plans live outside the marketplace, so they are not bound to its November to January calendar. Even so, open enrollment is the right time to price one: you see both numbers side by side, and if the underwritten plan does not work out, the marketplace window is still open.

If you're over the line and managing a health condition

If you take a costly prescription or see a specialist regularly, the marketplace is where you belong even at full price. A marketplace plan cannot turn you away or charge more for your health history, and it has to cover the standard essential benefits. Underwriting is where that history works against you: the insurer could say no, or write your condition out of the policy.

So your open enrollment job is choosing the right marketplace plan, not leaving. Check that your specialists and your pharmacy are in the 2027 network, because networks and drug lists change every year, and finish before your state's January 1 cutoff so nothing lapses.

If you already have a marketplace plan and expect it to renew

HealthCare.gov says to expect two letters by November 1, one from your insurer and one from the marketplace, telling you whether your plan continues for 2027 and which plan you will be moved into if you do nothing. If you take no action by December 15, you may be renewed automatically, but your savings will be figured on old information unless you update your income.

That last part is the trap for business owners. Last year's estimate is rarely next year's profit. Update the application with your 2027 numbers, then decide whether the plan you are matched with is still the right one.

If you're reading this after the window closed

After January 15 (January 29 in Virginia), the marketplace only lets you in with a qualifying life event, such as losing other coverage, moving, marrying or having a baby. Our guide to missing open enrollment walks through what is still open to you, and the 1099 worker's checklist is the list to work from next fall.

Common questions