Health Insurance Marketplace Watch

Now that you’ve filed your federal income tax return, how will this impact your health insurance plan and premium? 

    A) If you didn’t get your insurance through healthcare.gov your health insurance plan will not be impacted by your tax return. 

    B) If you did purchase your insurance through healthcare.gov and you authorized them on your application access to information found on other data sources such as the IRS, your account will be updated automatically.  Notification of changes to an individual’s account are unclear at this time, so please watch your health insurance plan and healthcare.gov account closely. Review any emails or letters you receive from the Health Insurance Marketplace.
         a) If your 2014 “modified adjusted gross income” is the same as what was reported on your healthcare.gov application, there should be no change in your plan. 

         b) If your 2014 “modified adjusted gross income” is more than what was reported on your healthcare.gov application:
                   1) You may owe the IRS money that you received as a subsidy, and 
                                                            2) Your subsidy amount will be lowered for 2015, so you will be paying more for your health insurance, and
                                                            3) If you were eligible for “cost-sharing” in 2014, your deductible and maximum out of pocket costs may increase for 2015.

                                                   c) If your 2014 “modified adjusted gross income” is less than what was reported on your healthcare.gov application:
                                                            1) You will get a tax credit for the subsidy amount you should have received, and
                                                            2) Your subsidy amount will increase for 2015, so you will pay less for your health insurance.
                                                            3) You may be eligible for cost-sharing, which will reduce your deductible and maximium out of pocket costs.

Please be aware that the neither the Health Insurance Marketplace, nor your insurance company is notifying your agent of changes.  We recommend that you closely monitor both your health insurance and healthcare.gov account and let us know of any change you may be concerned about or don’t understand. 

What can you do if your premiums or deductible has changed as a result of your income tax filing?  If this happens to you, you would be eligible for a special enrollment and will have 60 days from the date of change to apply for a new plan that better suits your needs.   Please contact us for help in submitting an application.

If you have any questions related to your health insurance plan or healthcare.gov account, please call us.  We are here to help!