New ACA enrollment period could help many

This is going to be good news for those who had to pay a penalty for not having health insurance last year and were unaware of the Feb. 15^th deadline to get covered through the Affordable Care Act this year.

The federal government just announced a one-time Special Enrollment Period from March 15 to April 30 for those folks so they won’t have to go uncovered for another year and be penalized for it. You have to be able to attest you paid the penalty when you filed your 2014 taxes and that you didn’t realize you had to sign up for 2015 ObamaCare coverage by Feb. 15.

You will still have to show you have the minimum adjusted gross income for household size and aren’t offered insurance through an employer or other agency to qualify for the ACA tax credits. But this does give hope for people who were in the dark and want to be covered this year.

The feds also announced Friday that those who had ACA coverage and tax credits last year should wait to do their taxes until they’ve received confirmation that their tax credit reconciliation figures they received from the IRS were correct. Apparently, more than 800,000 people across the country received incorrect information from the IRS over the past month and it most likely affected their taxes in some way.

This is all still so new to everyone, I can’t say I’m surprised by these errors and lack of information on deadlines. I still get calls from time to time from people under the poverty line who think they will be penalized for not being insured (they won’t) or from people who believe they have to drop their employer-supplied insurance or Medicare and, instead, get an ACA policy (they don’t even qualify for it).

The jury is still out on Medicaid Expansion for Alaska, but if it is finally implemented here this summer, those who were ineligible for Medicaid before might then be able to be covered that way and even those who have incomes at or up to 138 percent above the Federal Poverty Line might qualify for it and be able to get on Medicaid, instead of having an ACA policy. Stay tuned for more news about that.

I still believe there is more good than bad coming from the Affordable Care Act. More than 11 million people across this nation who couldn’t get affordable health insurance before or were denied because of pre-existing conditions now have coverage. This will save lives.

For more information, or help with ACA applications and enrollments, contact 352-3225, or dial 211 for other local assisters.

K.T. (Kate) McKee is a Certified Application Counselor for the Affordable Care Act at Mat-Su Health Services Inc., in Wasilla.