Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Regardless of the reason for the cancellation, you need to work with the health plan to bring your account current. Covered California can still be of assistance if your health plan was terminated because of an error in processing or request for documentation.
If an individual is working, paying taxes, and has an income low enough to qualify for the health insurance subsidies, they should be allowed to participate in the ACA program. These folks are our neighbors and are no different from the rest of us. They are trying to be responsible residents by enrolling in health insurance so some unfortunate accident does not make them a burden to the state.
If your employer has less than 20 employees, Medicare is primary payor. This means the group plan may wait until Medicare pays their portion of the health care. If you don’t have Medicare then you may have a big health care bill to pay. If you have coverage through a small employer group, seriously consider enrolling in Medicare.
I have seen where the information all looks correct, but Medi-Cal never resubmitted the application. Medi-Cal changes their database and that of Covered California. However, if those changes are not properly processed through CalHEERS, your results may not be correct.
But does the High Deductible Plan G protect you from catastrophic Medicare health care costs? In the example below, the Medicare beneficiary has a medical event where they must be hospitalized for five days. They must then reside in a skilled nursing facility for 30 days to recuperate. The costs are 2026 and 2036 where a 5 percent inflation adjustment has been applied to the Medicare costs.
A few of the carriers will offer discounts on dentistry, optometry, pharmacy purchases, and hearing exams and hearing aids. These discount offerings are NOT insurance. Some of the carriers also offer dental, vision, and Part D prescription drug plans. It’s possible that those carriers would rather you enroll in their insurance plans instead of using a discount program. The discount plans may be valuable for some people who can leverage the programs to save money.
Covered California must perform periodic data matching between their enrolled members and federal databases. If they determine that a consumer is eligible for Medicare, and the individual is receiving subsidies for health insurance, they will be automatically discontinued.
If Mary Lynn had to repay excess subsidies of $2,000, the repayment would be limited to $975 because her income is between 200% and 300% of the federal poverty level. Because her excess subsidy is less than $975, the $804.84 amount is transferred to line 29 of Part III.
The slope of the curve increases at the $125k income group. This is also the point where, for many families, the 2.5% of income penalty calculation is greater than the flat penalty amount. The highest average penalty happens at the $900k and $4 million income groups. The $900k income group had an average penalty of $7,921 and the $4 million group average penalty was $8,118. There was no data published for the $5 million income group.
VSP offers monthly premium discounts for multiple family members. The best deal is if you have a family of more than 3 household members. Blue Shield offers no family discounts. Remember, all individual and family plans include pediatric dental and vision for children 18 years old and younger. There may be no reason to include your children in the vision plan if it is already embedded in the health plan.
