When the Covered California system is in the renewal mode, changes to your household will affect enrollment and subsidies for 2020. If you need to make changes for 2019, you will want to go through the Report A Change function on the home page.
Covered California Application
Posts related to the Covered California application, consumer account, estimating income, household size, monthly subsidies, health plans, Medi-Cal, and terminations.
Do You Qualify for the New California Health Insurance Premium Subsidy?
For the California Premium Subsidy, you will reconcile that subsidy amount with the Franchise Tax Board when you file your state income tax return. And this is where it gets complicated and a potential headache for tax prepares. If your income is between 200% and 400% of the FPL you potentially could be receiving 2 subsidies, one from the feds and one from the state. If you earn over 400% of the FPL you will only get a subsidy from California.
Covered California Keeps Rates Low by Increasing Silver Plan Deductibles
I was surprised by the 60% increase in the Silver 70 medical deductible from $2,500 in 2019, to $4,000 in 2020. The Silver 73 plan increased 68% from $2,200 to $3,700 and the Silver 87 went from $650 to $1,400 – a 115% increase.
Federally Guaranteed Basic Monthly Income, Happening Now at Covered California
From my perspective, universal basic monthly income is already happening. Covered California gets money from the federal government and then sends it to the health plans. Whether the average amount is $424 or the real-world case of $2,094 per month, the Covered California subsidy is a real dollar amount that helps thousands of families in California. Perhaps Yang and Harris should study how the ACA and Covered California work and not tout their proposals has new or groundbreaking. The federal government is already paying out money on behalf of millions of health insurance consumers to make the monthly premiums affordable, which frees up money to pay all the other bills.
Covered California Fixes Medi-Cal Error Eligibility
Covered California has developed a reprieve from immediate reporting to SAWS in the event of an error on the application that triggers Medi-Cal eligibility. The one-day delay in reporting the eligibility results to Medi-Cal is outlined in the CalHEERS 19.7 release scheduled to be implement on July 22, 2019.
Need Help with Covered California, Call Your Agent
The family continued to wait, not paying any of the invoices they received because they figured that Covered California was working to resolve the issue. The health insurance plan was terminated by the health plan for lack of payment. If the consumer does not pay the all the premiums after 90 days, the consumer loses the right to make all the back-premium payments and reinstate the health plan. This is what happened to the family.
Covered California 1095-A & Loss of Monthly Subsidy
The 1095-A is almost as important as filing taxes. Even if you did not owe taxes in 2017, but still received the APTC, you have to file a tax return. Covered California has been notified by the IRS if a current household, receiving the subsidy, has not filed a 2017 tax return. Covered California is sending out letters to consumers that their current monthly APTC subsidy will be terminated if they do not resolve the issue.
Peter Lee Of Covered California Hopes To Squash Health Care Sharing Ministries
If the carriers feel threatened by the HCSM plans, they should lobby the legislature to ban those plans as well. Don’t use health insurance agents, under the guise of retribution from Covered California, to achieve the objective of limiting the enrollment in these plans. I completely get that if all the healthy people leave the pool, the carriers are going to have problems paying claims, and may exit the market altogether. We don’t want this to happen. But I’m just the agent. Don’t shoot me to protect your business model.
2019 Medi-Cal Program Income Levels For Families And Individuals
The benchmark 100% federal poverty level income for a single adult increased 3% from $12,140 in 2018 to $12,490 for 2019. The all important Covered California premium tax credit eligibility income (138% of the FPL) for a single adult increased from $16,754 for 2018 to $17,237 in 2019. This means a single adult now has to have an annual Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI) of $17,237 to be eligible for Covered California if they apply for health insurance in 2019.
Covered California Enrollment Decline Not Solely Based On Individual Mandate
The cost of the individual mandate is nothing compared to the cost of a decent health insurance plan. People are not enrolling in health insurance because it is too damn expensive. I don’t know what percentage of the decline in new enrollments for Covered California is due to expensive health insurance and they don’t know either. Talk to any health insurance agent they will tell you they fielded many calls from consumers wanting a lower rate on health insurance. They were willing to take anything, even if crappiest of plans if they could just afford it. I don’t sell them, but I had to inform people of the health care sharing ministries. These health care sharing plans are not insurance, but they can seem like a health plan for half the cost of a Covered California plan. How many people enrolled in these health care sharing plans and by-passed Covered California and the off-exchange plans altogether?