Health News
- 3,047 Got Private Health Insurance In Special March-april Signup Designed To Avoid Or Reduce Tax Penalty For Not Being Covered
More than 3,000 Kentuckians signed up for health coverage during a special March-April enrollment period that allowed them to avoid or reduce tax penalties for being uninsured. "At the Feb. 15 close of the 2015 open enrollment period, 158,685 individuals...
- As Tax Deadline Nears, Most Uninsured Appear Likely To Choose Penalty; Some With Coverage Are Having To Refund Part Of Subsidy
Kentucky Health News Most people facing a tax penalty for not having health insurance appear likely to pay it instead of taking advantage of a special opportunity to but coverage and minimize the penalty. "Major tax-preparation firms say many customers...
- Kynect Opens Special Enrollment Period March 2-april 30 To Give People Without Health Insurance A Chance To Avoid Tax Penalty
The state health-insurance exchange, Kynect, is reopening enrollment in March and April to allow signups by Kentuckians who discovered that not having health insurance means they have to pay a federal tax penalty. ?We believe that many Kentuckians did...
- Obamacare Raised Woman's Premium 74% But She's Thankful It Has Extended Health Care To Those Who Didn't Have It
"Beneath the loud debate" about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it is "quietly starting to change the health care landscape," writes Abby Goodnough of The New York Times, in the latest installment of her series looking at the law through...
- One In 13 Kentuckians Have Health Coverage Through Kynect
Nearly 322,000 Kentuckians had enrolled for health coverage through the state's new insurance exchange through 6 p.m. Thursday, March 20, and three-fourths of them didn't have coverage before, according to the state's preliminary analysis....
Health News
Only 1/4 of estimated number eligible for subsidized, private health insurance through Kynect have signed up for it
While 85,000 people are covered by private health plans through Kynect, that's only one-fourth of the 340,000 that state officials estimated would be able to buy subsidized coverage through the state insurance exchange. That "underscores some of the challenges" of the federal health-reform law, Abby Goodnough reports for The New York Times, in the latest of series of stories using Kentucky as a bellwether for Obamacare.
"People earning between 138 and 400 percent of the poverty level ? between about $16,000 and $47,000 for a single person ? can get subsidies to help with the cost," Goodnough explains. "Even with that incentive, only about 76,000 Kentuckians signed up for these plans in 2014 and have renewed the coverage for next year. Since the enrollment period for 2015 began on Nov. 15, an additional 9,000 people have selected exchange plans."
2015 is the first year taxpayers will have to report on tax returns whether they had health insurance in the prior year. Unless they qualify for one of about 30 exemptions, mostly involving financial hardships, the health-reform law requires them to pay a penalty: $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, or 1 percent of the family?s modified adjusted gross income that is over the threshold the requires it to file a tax return. The penalties will increase next year, but for most people will remain below the cost of insurance, so many are expected to pay a penalty.
Kentucky is considered one of 13 states where people in the individual insurance market are better off under Obamacare than they were before, and compares well with other states, so why are so few getting coverage? "National polls have found that many people simply consider the exchange plans unaffordable, even with subsidies," Goodnough notes. Several thousand Kentuckians signed up for coverage but didn't pay the premiums.
One was David Elson, who "decided he could not afford the $350 monthly premium for a plan that included his doctors," Goodnough reports. "His poor health got worse, and in October, he landed in the hospital with end-stage kidney disease."
"People earning between 138 and 400 percent of the poverty level ? between about $16,000 and $47,000 for a single person ? can get subsidies to help with the cost," Goodnough explains. "Even with that incentive, only about 76,000 Kentuckians signed up for these plans in 2014 and have renewed the coverage for next year. Since the enrollment period for 2015 began on Nov. 15, an additional 9,000 people have selected exchange plans."
2015 is the first year taxpayers will have to report on tax returns whether they had health insurance in the prior year. Unless they qualify for one of about 30 exemptions, mostly involving financial hardships, the health-reform law requires them to pay a penalty: $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, or 1 percent of the family?s modified adjusted gross income that is over the threshold the requires it to file a tax return. The penalties will increase next year, but for most people will remain below the cost of insurance, so many are expected to pay a penalty.
Kentucky is considered one of 13 states where people in the individual insurance market are better off under Obamacare than they were before, and compares well with other states, so why are so few getting coverage? "National polls have found that many people simply consider the exchange plans unaffordable, even with subsidies," Goodnough notes. Several thousand Kentuckians signed up for coverage but didn't pay the premiums.
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| David Elson gets dialysis. (NYT photo by William DeShazer) |
That enabled him to get special Medicare coverage for dialysis. But Elson, 61, of Louisville, told Goodnough, ?The president gets up there and says, ?We?ve got to get affordable health care for our people. It?s not.?
While Kentucky's private-plan enrollment is probably more modest than most states because it has more people living in near-poverty, the unwillingness of the near-poor to spend money on health insurance ? something many of them have never or rarely done ? may be the greatest long-term challenge to the new health-insurance system.
"Supporters say the private insurance exchanges will need robust business, including young and healthy customers that help balance the cost of sicker ones, to thrive," Goodnough notes. But her story also looks at people like Amanda Mayhew, 38, of Louisville, whose income is low enough for her to get free Medicaid coverage: "She has been to the dentist five times to begin salvaging her neglected teeth, has had a dermatologist remove a mole and has gotten medication for her depression."
- 3,047 Got Private Health Insurance In Special March-april Signup Designed To Avoid Or Reduce Tax Penalty For Not Being Covered
More than 3,000 Kentuckians signed up for health coverage during a special March-April enrollment period that allowed them to avoid or reduce tax penalties for being uninsured. "At the Feb. 15 close of the 2015 open enrollment period, 158,685 individuals...
- As Tax Deadline Nears, Most Uninsured Appear Likely To Choose Penalty; Some With Coverage Are Having To Refund Part Of Subsidy
Kentucky Health News Most people facing a tax penalty for not having health insurance appear likely to pay it instead of taking advantage of a special opportunity to but coverage and minimize the penalty. "Major tax-preparation firms say many customers...
- Kynect Opens Special Enrollment Period March 2-april 30 To Give People Without Health Insurance A Chance To Avoid Tax Penalty
The state health-insurance exchange, Kynect, is reopening enrollment in March and April to allow signups by Kentuckians who discovered that not having health insurance means they have to pay a federal tax penalty. ?We believe that many Kentuckians did...
- Obamacare Raised Woman's Premium 74% But She's Thankful It Has Extended Health Care To Those Who Didn't Have It
"Beneath the loud debate" about the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, it is "quietly starting to change the health care landscape," writes Abby Goodnough of The New York Times, in the latest installment of her series looking at the law through...
- One In 13 Kentuckians Have Health Coverage Through Kynect
Nearly 322,000 Kentuckians had enrolled for health coverage through the state's new insurance exchange through 6 p.m. Thursday, March 20, and three-fourths of them didn't have coverage before, according to the state's preliminary analysis....