Hours away from a deadline, the government announced on Tuesday that it was extending an enrollment period for full-year health insurance in 2016 under the Affordable Care Act.
To
get coverage beginning on Jan. 1, consumers will have until 11:59 p.m.
Pacific time on Thursday (2:59 a.m. Friday, Eastern time) to make
arrangements through HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace. Enrollment
was to have ended Tuesday night.
And
those missing the deadline will still have opportunities to sign up.
The open enrollment period ends on Jan. 31, for coverage starting on
March 1. For people who enroll by Jan. 15, coverage can start on Feb. 1.
At
least one state that operates its own marketplace, New York, has also
extended its deadline for coverage that starts on Jan. 1. New York
residents now have until Saturday, a four-day extension, the New York
State Department of Health announced on Tuesday.
More than a million people signed up for new health coverage by Dec. 5, the federal government said, and about 1.8 million had renewed coverage through HealthCare.gov. An additional spate of enrollments was expected as the Tuesday deadline approached.
Those
enrolled in Affordable Care Act coverage for 2015 should have been
notified about whether they were eligible for automatic re-enrollment.
Those eligible are re-enrolled in the same plan, unless they choose
another one.
But
it is generally not good to put enrollment on autopilot, health care
specialists say. The features of a particular plan, like participating
doctors, may change. And even if they do not, the cost may change. Or
the financial help that individual enrollees receive for their plan may
go up or down, depending on changes in the cost of competing plans.
Financial aid, in the form of premium subsidies, is based on the cost of
“benchmark” plans in a given market, which may change from year to
year.
So
even if the premium for your plan stays the same, the cost that you
personally must pay may change. In short, “it’s a good idea to shop,”
said Karen Pollitz, a health policy specialist with the Kaiser Family
Foundation.
It
is also getting costlier to skip coverage altogether, because penalties
for not enrolling in a health plan are climbing. For 2016, the penalty
is $695 per adult, or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is
greater. That is up from $325, or 2 percent of household income, for
2015. If you went without coverage for more than three months in 2015,
you will probably have to pay a penalty when you file your income tax
return, unless you qualify for an exemption.
In
many markets, Kaiser found, plans are available with annual premiums
that are less than the applicable penalty. Even if the plan has a high
deductible and could cost you a lot of money out of pocket if you became
ill, the same would be true if you went without coverage — and if you
enroll, you will have the benefit of paying lower rates negotiated by
the health plan. “Why would you flush $695, if you didn’t have to?” Ms.
Pollitz asked.
If
you do not sign up for coverage by Jan. 31, you must wait until the
next open enrollment period, unless you have a special circumstance like
a job loss or the birth of a child.
In
2015, the Obama administration authorized a special enrollment period
for people who learned, when filing their federal income taxes, that
they would owe a penalty. But the administration said this month that there would be no such period in 2016.
This content was original posted on : ANN CARRNS
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