Kevin Knauss: Health, History, Travel, Insurance
Posts related to eligibility for health care programs based on household income such as Covered California, Medi-Cal, Medicare usually based on federal poverty levels.
Let me emphasize that you are ESTIMATING your income for the year. Your past income and tax return can be used as a guide, but may not be an accurate predictor of your future MAGI. For example, if your spouse is set to collect Social Security retirement benefits in 2020, that income needs to be added to the MAGI.
There really is no mystery as to why the Covered California income chart doesn’t match the Medi-Cal federal poverty level income table. Covered California is working with two different programs. They must screen for MAGI Medi-Cal eligibility based on current monthly income and the latest federal poverty levels, and, they must also determine the Advance Premium Tax Credit subsidies following IRS guidelines that use the previous year’s federal poverty levels. And if you follow all of that, you are smarter than me!
If your income increases, many people incorrectly assume they are no longer eligible for MAGI Medi-Cal. That is not the case. Medi-Cal is based on your monthly income, not necessarily your annual income. Just because you had an unexpected bump in your hours for one month, does not mean you are no longer eligible. Just report the change to Medi-Cal and let them make the determination. The same applies if you receive a one-time lump sum income amount. These types of events are not necessary counted against you.
The Medi-Cal HMO plans are very similar to private health insurance plans. The plans have member ID cards, a provider network, and a drug formulary. One of the biggest complaints I hear is that the Medi-Cal HMO plans have few primary care providers and specialists that are accepting new patients. I also hear the same complaint from my clients in private health plans.
As many people enrolled in Covered California have found out, the folks at Covered California will not talk about taxes. Most consumers have also learned the dirty little secret about the federal and state subsidies for health insurance; it’s all about your tax return. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and the California Franchises Tax Board (FTB) don’t care how you estimated your income to Covered California to become eligible for the monthly subsidies. They only care about the final income number (MAGI) that entitles you to a subsidy.
ABLE account beneficiaries can contribute their own income or property to their ABLE account. A beneficiary may transfer countable property to their ABLE account to spenddown excess property.
Will I be able to keep my current health plan? If you have a health plan bought directly from a health insurance company – also known as off-exchange – you might be able to enroll in the same plan. Not all health plans offered direct to consumers off-exchange are available through Covered California. For example, if you have a Kaiser Silver HDHP HSA compatible plan, it is not offered through Covered California. You would need to select one of the plans Covered California offers in order to get the subsidy.
The Covered California Premium Subsidy for health insurance is in addition to any federal ACA subsidy. It is also available for households who don’t qualify for the federal subsidy such as incomes over 400% of the federal poverty level. The subsidy estimator is an online tool to determine if your household might qualify for the […]
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 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.
