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Your health, our purpose · Tu salud, nuestra razón
Madrinas Insurance is a licensed insurance agency serving Illinois families by phone and video, in English and Spanish. We help with marketplace health plans through Get Covered Illinois, Medicare, dental, vision, and life insurance - at no cost to you, because the insurance carriers pay us.
We work with families in Chicago, Cicero, Aurora, Elgin, Waukegan, and communities across the state. Illinois runs its own exchange with its own rules, and we know them.
Every service below is available to Illinois residents through a licensed bilingual advisor, at no cost to you. Your premium is the same whether you enroll with us or on your own - the difference is that someone walks it with you.
Through Get Covered Illinois. We check your eligibility for premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, compare the plans available in your county against your doctors and prescriptions, and complete the application with you - by phone or by video.
Lost a job, moved, married, had a baby, or lost Medicaid? We confirm whether you qualify to enroll outside open enrollment and get it done inside the window.
For households that need coverage outside an employer plan, on or off the marketplace.
For the self-employed and anyone who doesn’t qualify for marketplace subsidies or Medicare.
Small-business plans for owners who want to cover their employees without becoming an HR department.
Medicare Advantage, Medicare Supplement, and Part D. We walk new-to-Medicare clients through their first enrollment, review the Annual Notice of Change every fall, and compare plans against your prescriptions and doctors - not just the premium.
Dental and vision. Standalone or added alongside your health plan. Life insurance, mortgage protection, and final expense. Term, whole life, and burial coverage sized to what your family actually needs - not a formula.
This is the part most agencies skip. We stay reachable for documentation requests, plan changes, renewals, denied claims, and the question in March about something you signed in December.
Over 2.5 million families have trusted us since 2013
Get Covered Illinois certifies agents annually, with an exam - federal marketplace certification doesn’t carry over.
We’re paid by the insurance carriers. Your premium is identical whether you enroll with us, on HealthCare.gov by yourself, or directly with a carrier.
Not a translated script - advisors who speak the language your family actually uses.
Real credentialed agents who can be held accountable, not a lead-generation form.
We don’t have an Illinois office. Licensed Illinois advisors serve the state by phone and video, in English and Spanish, and can walk through your entire Get Covered Illinois enrollment with you on one call.
ACA enrollment
Open enrollment starts
Nov 1
Bilingual support always standing by to find premium tax credits.
Illinois replaced the federal marketplace with Get Covered Illinois (getcovered.illinois.gov), the state’s own marketplace. HealthCare.gov no longer sells plans to Illinois residents.
Existing HealthCare.gov accounts were migrated over. If you haven’t logged into your Get Covered Illinois account yet, do that before open enrollment rather than during it - sorting out an account problem in early November is a very different experience from sorting it out on December 14.
Illinois requires insurance agents to be separately certified by Get Covered Illinois each year, including passing an exam and attesting to the state’s Non-Exchange Entity Agreement, before they can help you enroll. Federal marketplace certification doesn’t carry over.
Enrollment timing. Open enrollment for individual and family coverage generally begins November 1 and runs into January, with an earlier December deadline for coverage starting January 1. Illinois sets its own calendar, and its dates and effective-date rules have varied. Check our enrollment deadlines page, call us, or visit getcovered.illinois.gov.
Outside open enrollment you need a qualifying life event - losing job-based coverage, marriage, divorce, a new baby, adoption, a permanent move, aging off a parent’s plan. That typically opens a 60-day window.
Illinois marketplace enrollees are required to verify their application information and resolve any data-matching inconsistencies in order to keep their premium tax credits.
If that doesn’t happen, you can be renewed without those credits. A plan you understood to cost a manageable amount suddenly costs several times that, and you find out when the bill arrives.
It isn’t a penalty and it isn’t a denial. It’s your subsidy dropping off because a document didn’t match.
Insurance companies enter and leave state marketplaces from year to year. When a carrier stops offering plans, enrollees have to actively choose something new - and you may or may not be moved into comparable coverage automatically.
Two things determine whether a replacement plan actually works for you, and neither is something an enrollment website will flag:
Networks differ substantially between carriers.
A drug that was inexpensive on your old plan can be costly or excluded on the new one.
Bring us your prescription list and your doctors’ names and we’ll check both before you commit.
This is the part of the job that’s genuinely hard to do yourself.
Medicare runs on a completely separate calendar from ACA coverage.
| Window | When | What it’s for |
|---|---|---|
| Annual Enrollment Period | October 15 – December 7, every year | Change your Medicare Advantage or Part D plan for the following year |
| Medicare Advantage Open Enrollment | January 1 – March 31 | Already in an MA plan? One change allowed |
| Initial Enrollment Period | The 7 months around your 65th birthday | Your first Medicare enrollment |
| General Enrollment Period | January 1 – March 31 | If you missed signing up for Part A or B |
| Medigap open enrollment | The 6 months starting when your Part B begins | The only window where a Supplement cannot decline you for health reasons |
Read the Annual Notice of Change your plan mails each fall - costs, formularies, and networks change annually.
Two things worth knowing before you call.
Your Medigap open enrollment window is six months, starts when Part B begins, and doesn’t repeat - outside it, a Supplement can decline you or charge more for your health, so call before you turn 65, not after.
The Annual Notice of Change your plan mails each fall; costs, formularies, and networks change every year. Guaranteed-issue rights and the Medicare Advantage trial right are explained on our Medicare page.
Free, unbiased Medicare counseling is also available in Illinois through Illinois SHIP (the Senior Health Insurance Program), run by the Illinois Department on Aging.
We mention Illinois SHIP because it’s genuinely useful, even though it’s technically competition.
We do not offer every plan available in your area. Currently we represent [number] organizations which offer [number] products in your area. Please contact Medicare.gov, 1-800-MEDICARE, or your local State Health Insurance Assistance Program to get information on all of your options.
Illinois has adopted ACA Medicaid expansion, so there is no coverage gap here. Below the Medicaid threshold you qualify for Illinois Medicaid; above it you qualify for subsidized Get Covered Illinois coverage. Every Illinois resident has a path to coverage.
Adults qualify up to the expansion threshold. Children are covered through All Kids at substantially higher income levels. Applications are accepted year-round.
A note on Medicaid paperwork. Federal and state Medicaid documentation and eligibility-verification rules have been changing. Keep your income and contact information current, and read everything the state sends you. Most coverage losses come from paperwork problems rather than from people actually being ineligible. Call us before the deadline on any notice you don’t understand.
Premium tax credits lower what you pay monthly, and most Get Covered Illinois enrollees qualify. Eligibility and amount depend on income, household size, ages, and county.
Cost-sharing reductions are a separate benefit on Silver plans for lower-income households, reducing your deductible and copays rather than your premium. They’re frequently worth more than the premium savings.
Subsidy rules and income thresholds change from year to year, so we don’t publish estimates here. We calculate your actual numbers with you - in English or Spanish - before you commit.
Illinois has no state-funded premium subsidy comparable to some neighboring states. Your help here comes from the federal premium tax credit and cost-sharing reductions.
Illinois has one of the largest Latino populations in the Midwest. In cities like Cicero, most residents are Hispanic. Chicago’s Hispanic population is among the largest of any American city in absolute numbers, and Aurora, Elgin, and Waukegan all have substantial, long-established communities.
Nationally, Hispanic residents go without health coverage at close to three times the rate of white residents. Every Madrina is bilingual, and that’s why.
Madrinas Insurance operates as a licensed insurance agency, Living Secure Insurance Advisors, LLC, NPN 16780309, licensed to transact insurance business in Illinois. License details are available on request and verifiable through the Illinois Department of Insurance.
Find answers to common health coverage questions. Clear, straightforward explanations from our expert team.
We care, you count · Tu salud, nuestra razón
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