Political passions run high over the looming January 1, 2014 deadline of the “Individual Mandate” and other provisions of The Affordable Care Act (ACA).  To add fuel to the fire, the ACA Health Exchange Marketplace opened on October 1st and promptly crashed!  The big fix on December 1st gave only minor relief to a slow, cumbersome and frustrating on-line experience.

AMERICAN INSURANCE is committed to helping you and our services are no-cost.  We have four health agents that are certified and registered for the Idaho and Washington Health Exchange Marketplaces.  Almost everyone is affected in some way by this sweeping and complicated health care reform legislation.  Contact us for up-to-date and specific information on how ACA / ObamaCare affects you. 

The “Individual Mandate” - While some provisions of the  Affordable Care Act have been delayed until 2015, the Individual Mandate for all Americans to have health insurance or face a tax penalty is still in effect beginning in 2014. Although all the focus has been on the January 1, 2014 date,  the real deadline and actual details are less urgent. Let’s take a look at two key provisions of ACA and how they really work.

Application deadline for January 1^st Enrollment -  The Whitehouse has extended the healthcare application deadline by one week  to December 23^rd. This is the last day applications can be submitted to receive a January 1^st effective date for health insurance.  

The Affordable Health Exchanges – The Affordable Health Exchanges provide open enrollment for ACA qualified health plans until March 31, 2014.  As long as you apply for coverage by then and keep your coverage the rest of 2014 you will not be subject to a penalty tax.  Remember, you can only access reduced monthly premium tax credits and cost sharing reductions through the Health Exchange in your state. If you don’t apply during the Exchange open enrollment you can only buy insurance outside the Exchange.