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Your health, our purpose · Tu salud, nuestra razón
Madrinas Insurance is a licensed insurance agency serving Pennsylvania families by phone and video, in English and Spanish. We help with marketplace health plans through Pennie, Medicare, dental, vision, and life insurance - at no cost to you, because the insurance carriers pay us.
We work with families in Philadelphia, Allentown, Reading, Lancaster, Hazleton, and communities across the Commonwealth. Pennsylvania has one of the widest carrier selections in the country and a children’s health program most parents don’t know they qualify for. We’ll walk you through both.
Every service below is available to Pennsylvania 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 Pennie. 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
More choice is genuinely good - and genuinely harder to sort through alone. Networks and formularies differ substantially between carriers.
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 a Pennsylvania office. Licensed Pennsylvania advisors serve the Commonwealth by phone and video, in English and Spanish, and can walk through your entire Pennie enrollment with you on one call.
ACA enrollment
Open enrollment starts
Nov 1
Bilingual support always standing by to find premium tax credits.
Pennsylvania uses Pennie (pennie.com), the state’s fully state-based marketplace, operated by the Pennsylvania Health Insurance Exchange Authority. HealthCare.gov no longer sells plans to Pennsylvania residents. Agents must complete annual Pennie certification to help residents 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. Pennie sets its own calendar and has adjusted effective-date deadlines in some years, so don’t rely on last year’s dates - confirm current deadlines with us, on our enrollment deadlines page, or on pennie.com.
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.
Path to Pennie is a Pennsylvania-only pathway. Uninsured residents can indicate on their state income tax return that they need health coverage, and Pennie will contact the household to begin enrollment - including opening a special enrollment period.
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 Pennsylvania through PA MEDI (Pennsylvania Medicare Education and Decision Insight), run by the Pennsylvania Department of Aging.
We mention PA MEDI 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.
Medical Assistance (MA) covers adults up to the expansion threshold. 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, read everything the state sends you, and call us before the deadline on any notice you don’t understand. Most coverage losses come from paperwork problems rather than actual ineligibility.
This is the single most underused program on this page, so read it carefully. Pennsylvania CHIP covers all uninsured children and teens up to age 19, regardless of family income. The Commonwealth’s own language is that no one makes too much money for CHIP. Lower-income families pay nothing. Higher-income families pay a modest monthly premium and copays - still a fraction of what a private child-only policy would cost.
Pennsylvania has a large number of uninsured children, and a meaningful share of them have parents who assumed they earned too much to qualify. If you’ve written off children’s coverage because of your income, in Pennsylvania that assumption is almost certainly wrong. Ask us. It takes one conversation.
Premium tax credits lower what you pay monthly, and the large majority of Pennie enrollees qualify for one. 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.
On state subsidies - be careful what you read. Some websites describe a Pennsylvania state subsidy stacked on top of the federal credit. Pennsylvania has authorized such a program in law, but authorization and funding are different things, and the program’s status has been uncertain. Don’t plan around it. Ask us what actually applies to your household right now - your reliable help in Pennsylvania is the federal premium tax credit and cost-sharing reductions.
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.
Pennsylvania’s Latino population is heavily Puerto Rican and concentrated in the eastern part of the Commonwealth. Reading is the most Hispanic city in Pennsylvania; Hazleton and Allentown both have large, fast-growing communities; Lancaster and Philadelphia have long-established ones.
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 Pennsylvania. License details are available on request and verifiable through the Pennsylvania Insurance Department.
Find answers to common health coverage questions. Clear, straightforward explanations from our expert team.
We care, you count · Tu salud, nuestra razón
Free, bilingual, no pressure.
Takes less than 2 minutes
