Termination due to missed payment. What are our options? (Maryland)

We have a Maryland exchange (marketplace) policy through United Healthcare (UHC Bronze Value+) that we have had for more than a year. A week ago, my husband went to fill a prescription and learned that our policy was terminated on March 31st. We never received any kind of notification that we missed a payment or that our policy had been terminated for more than a month. I logged in and was able to find a termination letter dated April 5th that we never actually received by mail or email. Even if we had, I wouldn't have had time by that point to make the payments.

Apparently, the credit card set to autopay on the policy had expired and we just had no idea. I know, we messed up. What I didn't realize was exactly how screwed we are. I thought we could just pay the missed payments and get our policy back. There was only a 30 day grace period because we didn't receive any tax benefits. The insurance company said talk to the marketplace. The marketplace said we are SOL unless we are qualified for a special enrollment period — I've tried every possible thing I can think of and nothing qualifies us for a special enrollment. We had JUST paid $9k for my husband's surgery in March, finally meeting our deductible and out of pocket max, and I guess that's just gone now.

Both the insurance company and the marketplace tell us we literally can't enroll in a new policy until open enrollment in November to start in 2024. My husband and 3 kids were on this policy and I just can't believe we literally have no health insurance for the next 7 months. I can't believe we have the money to pay it and no one will take our money and give us insurance. I actually have a separate insurance policy for myself through my work, but they will not add my family to it at this point because they say it's been more than 30 days since the termination letter is dated. We don't have high health needs, but my husband needs regular prescriptions for blood pressure, etc, and we do have occasional doctor's visits. All of the kids need to go to the doctor this summer before school, and I'm also terrified of a catastrophe. I just can't believe we have absolutely no insurance and no way to get it.

submitted by /u/Able_Tiger_4312
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