Confusing!
This stuff is really confusing. I called up three of the plans to compare and now feel overwhelmed. There is so much information provided on each plan that uses specialized terms such as coinsurance, EHB, MOOP out of network, EHB variance, etc. etc.! Some of the information is blank for the Anthem plan. I feel lost.If I was urgently trying to enroll today, I would feel really frustrated about now. The website keeps crashing, and the plans are complicated.
I finally called KYnect again. A kindly woman named Shavona helped me with some of the terms. She said she and her fellow staffers are being hampered by the site being down and thus they cannot see what the callers are referring to on the callers' screens. She was not sure why some of the columns were blank under the Anthem plan but that the updates could be affecting things. I asked if there was a part of the website that explained these terms, and she said there is on healthcare.gov
Also, if you choose to remain uninsured, the penalty this year is $95 or 1% of your income (whichever is greater).
Also, you must enroll and have your money received by December 15, 2013, if you want your coverage to begin January 1, 2014.
Is that penalty established if the person is uninsured by a specific day regardless of if they were insured earlier in the year or for a portion of the year or ???
ReplyDeleteYaaresse, that is a good question. The enrollment period for the exchanges this time is from October 1, 2013, to March 31, 2014. The ACA exempts you from having insurance for 3 months if you are between jobs too.
ReplyDeleteWhen you file your 2014 taxes (thus by April 15, 2015, or so), you will have to file a form from your insurer or employer showing you were insured for 2014.
The penalty in 2014 is $95 per adult or 1% of your income -whichever is higher. There is also a penalty of $47.50 for each uninsured child. Or, an entire uninsured family has a maximum penalty of $285. It will go up in 2015 and 2016 until it maxes out at $695 per adult and $347.50 per child -or a maximum for an entire family of $2,085 or 2.5% of a family's income (whichever is higher).
So, if someone makes $40,000 and chooses not to buy insurance, they will pay:
2014: $400
2015: $800
2016: $1,000
It's a progressive penalty. The more you earn, the larger the penalty will be.