Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
The dental plan review and spreadsheet leans heavily on Delta Dental. However, there are many dental plans from other carriers that work just as well and are competitively priced. While you can enroll directly with many dental plans, there are situations where you must use a specific marketing channel such as the Morgan White Group or Covered California.
However, there can be no mistake that AI is becoming more sophisticated in providing financial analysis for health insurance. There is a large population of people for which the AI analysis is good enough to base a health insurance decision upon. This makes health insurance agents obsolete in many situations.
Similarly, Social Security Disability benefits are added to the MAGI. What surprises people is that they may receive a lump sum check for previous months of disability payments from when the disability application was first file. This lump sum benefit covering several months can push the household income over 400 percent.
When we add the Part B deductible, your total costs for the infusion therapy are $20,283. This cost is more than double the two-week hospital and 40-day nursing facility stay.
A single adult can now earn up to $1,836 monthly and retain MAGI Medi-Cal eligibility. This is an increase of $35 from 2025.
Regardless of whether the children’s dental coverage is HMO or PPO, there will be long list of dental services that are no charge for children with in-network dentists.
Unfortunately, it can be confusing to know when the deductible applies and what coinsurance means. Coinsurance is simply a percentage of the cost of the health care service that the health plan member is responsible for.
You may have to pay an Income Related Monthly Adjustment Amount (IRMAA) if your income is greater than $109,000 for a single adult or $218,000 for joint tax filers. The income is the Modified Adjusted Gross Income which is comprised of your AGI plus tax exempt interest. The income year is 2 years prior. For 2026, Social Security uses the 2024 tax return to determine if you are subject to the IRMAA.
Submitting the online attestation for all of the household members, should clear the verification request. Confirm that all household members are no longer under the proof of income verification request. Once complete, you will be in good standing with Covered California for proof and verification of income. If you change your income during the year, a new income verification request may be generated.
Whereas I was optimistic about 2025, I am pessimistic about 2026. Because the enhanced subsidies were not passed by Congress, I’m seeing people drop health insurance. I anticipate more people will drop health insurance during the year because they just will not be able to afford the high health insurance premiums.
