Open Enrollment Periods on the New Health Marketplace

            The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has just announced further date changes to the Open Enrollment Period for health insurance plans offered through Health Insurance Exchanges (HIXs). The establishment of these marketplaces has been wrought with problems, from website issues to enrollment projection inaccuracies. Hence, the HHS announced today that the Open Enrollment Period will be modified.

             In recent weeks, the HHS announced that instead of February 15, the last day to sign up for insurance without penalty will become March 31, 2014. Today, HHS announced that people now have an extra 8 days- until December 23, 2013- to enroll for health coverage starting on January 1, 2014. All those that sign up before December 23 must pay their first month's premium by December 31 for the plan to take effect. In addition, the HHS announced yesterday that the Open Enrollment Period for 2015 will be further delayed; rather than beginning as planned on October 15, 2014, the Open Enrollment Period for 2015 will be pushed back to November 15, 2014, and will last until January 7, 2015.
 

            You are able to sign up for health insurance through the exchange via www.healthcare.gov. The Open Enrollment Period on the federal and state HIXs began this year on October 1, 2013, albeit to a rocky start. During the first week, many had difficulty signing up on the exchanges due to technical difficulties.  However, enrollment on the exchanges will soon be functional. If you wish to purchase private health insurance through the exchanges, you should pay close attention to the timeline below:

It is important to note that the ACA has extended the Open Enrollment Period not only to the HIXs, but also to the private sector of health insurance. Individual or family insurance plans bought off-exchange must also be purchased between October 1, 2013 and March 31, 2014. There are a few exceptions, such as significant changes in job circumstances or employer-provided health insurance.

The penalty for not having health insurance in 2014 is $95 or 1% of your 2014 income, whichever is greater. This amount is for each person- if you are an individual, this is it, but if you have a family, you must pay this amount for you, for your spouse, and for each child, up to the maximum penalty described in the chart below. This penalty is going to go up gradually in time; it is projected to be $695 or 2.5% of your income (whichever is greater) by 2016, and will be adjusted to reflect the cost of living past that point. The increase in penalties can be seen below.

From Kaiser Health News

Regardless of whether you purchase insurance on or off the exchange, you want to make sure you have insurance by the end of the Open Enrollment Period. If you have any questions about obtaining health insurance for 2014, feel free to call us at AH Insurance Services on 1(866) 500-4532 or locally on (727) 397-6932.

Until next time,

Andrew Herman
AH Insurance Services, Inc.