Part 4 of a 4 part series on the Affordable Care Act
To comply with all 10 mandated areas of coverage and keep the cap, insurers are going to be looking for other places to cut back. There are two obvious places.
The bottom-line: read the fine print and know your network and deductibles.
The next part of this series will point you to a tool to help with that!
What if I don’t get insurance?
Some people will not be covered by Jan. 1, 2014 due to reasons beyond their control Other people just do not want to pay for health insurance. Although this is a risky proposition, it is one that you can choose. However, you will be assessed a civil penalty tax for not being covered, which will be deducted from any tax refund you are being given for that tax year.
The tax will be increased from 2014 to 2016.
The tax will be assessed for each month you went without insurance. For THE YEAR: the tax will be the greater of either:
$95 or 1% of your household income reported on your tax form
(so if you report $50,000 a year, you will pay $500)
In 2016, this will be a lot more,
$695 or 2.5% of household income
(so for $50,000 you would pay $1,250).
And you STILL would have no insurance and have to pay for all your healthcare bills and medicines.!!
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianfuller/4000194365/">Ian Fuller</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>
To comply with all 10 mandated areas of coverage and keep the cap, insurers are going to be looking for other places to cut back. There are two obvious places.
- Your deductible: you may get sticker shock just looking at the jump in deductible for your insurance plan. This also goes for work plans too, who may be affected by costs incurred by changes in the law. The changes seem to be a bit more pricey for the young, who on whole have fewer health problems and may not reach the cap limit and beyond with healthcare dollar spending. For example, Matthew Herper of Forbes magazine says that a 21-year old experiences an 81% increase in cost to normalize his deductible to 2013 prices, while a 40-year old would pay 29%, and a 64-year old man would pay 64%, respectively.
- Limiting your choices of providers. A wholesale narrowing of networks has occurred since 2013. If you are not already aware, the choices in the Marketplace are tiered by cost (Bronze, Silver and Gold). The lower cost plans may mean you have fewer choices of providers as well as higher deductibles. One example I found for Northern New Jersey, Horizon Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Jersey includes just ONE hospital in Bergen County and ONE in Passaic county (some of the most populated areas of the United States) for the lowest tiered plans. You can go out of network, but you will pay out-of-pocket costs. Apparently, it’s also not the best deal for the hospitals either, as their reimbursement rates for patients in-network are extremely low. If patient numbers exceed their expectations, look for them to squeeze costs from consumers in other ways.
The bottom-line: read the fine print and know your network and deductibles.
The next part of this series will point you to a tool to help with that!
What if I don’t get insurance?
Some people will not be covered by Jan. 1, 2014 due to reasons beyond their control Other people just do not want to pay for health insurance. Although this is a risky proposition, it is one that you can choose. However, you will be assessed a civil penalty tax for not being covered, which will be deducted from any tax refund you are being given for that tax year.
The tax will be increased from 2014 to 2016.
The tax will be assessed for each month you went without insurance. For THE YEAR: the tax will be the greater of either:
$95 or 1% of your household income reported on your tax form
(so if you report $50,000 a year, you will pay $500)
In 2016, this will be a lot more,
$695 or 2.5% of household income
(so for $50,000 you would pay $1,250).
And you STILL would have no insurance and have to pay for all your healthcare bills and medicines.!!
photo credit: <a href="http://www.flickr.com/photos/ianfuller/4000194365/">Ian Fuller</a> via <a href="http://photopin.com">photopin</a> <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/2.0/">cc</a>