There’s still time for enrollment in Affordable Care Act coverage

Although the deadline past Monday to enroll in the Affordable Care Act, that doesn’t mean the opportunity to get coverage under the ACA is over for 2015.

Open Enrollment continues until Feb. 15, 2015. Anyone who enrolls between Dec. 16 and Jan. 15, 2015, will have coverage beginning Feb. 1. People who enroll between Jan. 16 and Feb. 15 will have coverage starting March 1. Those whose coverage doesn’t start until March 1 will not be penalized for not being covered for part of 2015. You can actually be without health insurance for three months without incurring a fee by the IRS.

Anyone who had trouble enrolling by the end of Dec. 15 because of technical difficulties with the healthcare.gov website and the Call Center is being given a grace period this week and will still be able to be covered starting Jan. 1. But that applies only for those who honestly tried to enroll by the end of the day on Dec. 15.

Those who already were enrolled in an ACA policy for 2014 and did not go back to their application on healthcare.gov and resubmit it for 2015 will be automatically enrolled in a new policy by their insurance company (either Moda Health or Premera Blue Cross Blue Shield), but their monthly premium most likely will be a lot higher than it would have been if they’d resubmitted their application on healthcare.gov and gotten a new tax credit eligibility determination. Those in that boat can still go back to their ACA application and get a better rate, but the new rate likely won’t kick in until February.

There is still a good deal of misinformation floating around out there about the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare). There are court challenges to the law, but it is highly unlikely the ACA is going away anytime soon.

The U.S. Supreme Court will hear a case this summer regarding whether residents in states like ours that rely on the federal Health Insurance Marketplace — instead of having our own Affordable Care Act exchange in Alaska — will be eligible for the tax credits to reduce premiums and the cost-sharing reductions that decrease the cost of deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums. That case focuses on some wording in the 2010 law, which is open to interpretation. Even if the high court rules in favor of those challenging the ACA, there likely won’t be any changes to anyone’s coverage until after 2015.

Please remember there are income guidelines and other restrictions that dictate whether someone is eligible for the tax credits and cost-sharing through the ACA. For those whose incomes dip below a certain level, they may be able to be covered through Medicaid once Medicaid Expansion is up and running here. That could take several months since the Medicaid system in Alaska is facing a few issues at the moment.

If you have any questions, please call me (Kate) at Mat-Su Health Services at 352-3225. I am now taking appointments to assist folks with their ACA accounts, applications, and enrollments in person for coverage to begin Feb. 1. My help is free and confidential.

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