Not Yet 65, But Don’t Have Healthcare Insurance? Hurry- Open Enrollment Is Shorter This Year
Category: Health and Wellness Issues
Coming Soon… How to Buy a Medigap Policy
November 1, 2017 — Today is the opening day of the abbreviated Open Enrollment period for Obamacare/aka the Affordable Care Act. We know many of our younger Members are retired before they wanted to be, or work for companies that don’t offer health insurance. If you don’t have health care insurance, and you are not yet 65 or otherwise ineligible for Medicare, you have until Dec. 15 to do something about it.
In this article we will try to outline the basic facts about how to sign up for Obamacare. Many people assume, incorrectly, that Obamacare is dead. To the contrary, although wounded by Congress’s umpteen unsuccessful attempts to repeal it and the President’s recent executive actions, the reports of the ACA’s death are greatly exaggerated, to paraphrase Mark Twain. It is still the law of the land and the vehicle for over 10 million Americans to get affordable health insurance. You can still sign up for (or change) health care insurance for you and your family without worrying about having to pay extra or be declined for pre-existing conditions. And if your income is under $50,000,
Comments on "Not Yet 65, But Don’t Have Healthcare Insurance? Hurry- Open Enrollment Is Shorter This Year"
Jennifer says:
They do not mention Healthcare Coops which are covered by the ACA and much more affordable. Samaritan Ministries has one with 250,000 members and growing.
Editor's Comment: Thanks Jennifer, great point!
Louise says:
In CT we have AccessHealth.com. Received my renewal and the price of insurance went up from $950.54 to $1264.20 a month. The advanced tax credit (subsidy) for last year was $440.00 and I had to pay $510.54. The advanced tax credit this year is $769.00 and I will pay $495.20. For me it went down $15.34 a month. I will be eligible for Medicare August 1, 2018! So glad!
Please spread the word that the sign up period is shorter this year. They also plan to shut the websites down for 'maintenance' I believe I read on Sundays for a certain amount of hours. Plus, less advertising for it. Email/call your friends, relatives, coworkers and tell them to sign up. They are also cutting back the amount of advisors who normally help you decide on what plan is best for you. They are trying to make it a miserable process. We are all adults and if you need insurance, sign up!
Interesting on Samaritan Ministries Jennifer! Can you supply a website for those who might be interested?
Editor's note: We checked on Samaritan Ministries and it is a unique program. Instead of health insurance members contribute to support health care needs of fellow members. Here is more about it: SamaritanMinistries
Clyde says:
Thank you for providing this information. Since the federal administration is providing little in promotion/publicity this year, and the enrollment period has also been cut back by the administration, it is important for others to get the word out. Since insurance can be bought outside the ACA exchanges, it is important to remember to check this possibility out, as mentioned. The pre-existing conditions protection, and all other ACA protections must currently also be provided by these off-exchange policies. And sometimes the premiums are cheaper.
Greg says:
Question #9 is:
"9. If I don’t want to or are ineligible for Obamacare what are my options?"
Your response is: "You have some options. You can always go into the private marketplace to buy or compare policies."
Could you please provide some more detail/direction on this? How does one access/locate the private marketplace?
Editor's comment. Good question. Here is some information on private insurance. You probably need to go to an independent insurance agent to get one of these plans - use your family and friends to get some recommendations.
Admin says:
From Jennifer: Here is the link for those who are interested in healthcare co-ops if you are not yet 65, and need health insurance.
http://bit.ly/2gvMroU This one is for Medi-share.