Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
It was in February 2013 that I wrote a glowing post about the imminent launch of the Covered California website. Thousands of individuals and families across California were full of hope and optimism as Covered California looked to be on track to fulfill the long awaited promise of access to health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. Two […]
From the earliest marketing of Covered California it was obvious that this new health insurance Marketplace exchange would be more of a sales organization as opposed to a consumer advocate for health insurance. A recently published document entitled Sales and Outreach Skills directed toward Certified Enrollment Counselors and Navigators reinforces the appearance that Covered California […]
In response to Covered California Navigators complaints about not being able to fulfill their contractual obligations to enroll individuals and families in tax subsidized health plans the Covered California Board voted at their January 15, 2015, to advance grant money to Navigators just for talking to consumers. The Navigator program was launch in the fall […]
Covered California has quietly announced that they will not be offering individual and family dental plans through the exchange in 2015. The dumping of the family dental plan options comes after Covered California released a whole dental plan booklet of family dental plans in August of 2014. No reason was given as to why the dental plans will […]
.Covered California states that they started processing the 2016 1095-As as of January 5, 2017. The form should be in the consumer’s Covered California account Summary>Documents and Correspondence>CalNOD62A_IRSForm1095A_2016 by the end of January. The form should also be mailed out to consumers at the address listed for receiving mail.
Certified Insurance Agent John Dickey, who is already taking Covered California to small claims court, is now in conversations with a Southern California law firm to potentially file a class action lawsuit against Covered California on behalf of agents who suffered a loss of income because of the numerous problems during open enrollment for 2014. Dickey’s […]
One of the selling features of the Affordable Care Acts was that children could stay on their parent’s health plan until they turned 26 years old. Unfortunately, Covered California excludes from eligibility any household member that will not be claimed as a dependent by the primary taxpayer associated with the account. However, IRS guidance suggests that […]
Individuals and families who purchased health insurance through Covered California or another Marketplace exchange will receive a 1095-A statement of tax credits and one column will be marked SLCSP. This odd acronym stands for the Second Lowest Cost Silver Plan and is instrumental in determining the specific household Premium Tax Credit. What is affordable health insurance? […]
Covered California has released a variety of documents to help tax payers enrolled in their health plans report the Advance Premium Tax Credits (APTC) on their federal 2014 tax return. The guidance from Covered California discusses the IRS Form 1095-A Marketplace Statement the tax payer will receive, using it to fill out Form 8962 Premium Tax […]
It is no news to the first wave of Covered California Certified Insurance Agents in 2013 that Californias online health insurance exchange was not ready for business. The number one complaint from agents was they were not receiving credit, and ultimately commissions, from the numerous individual and family enrollments they were performing. […]
