Some people may have been confused about finding affordable health insurance or paying the individual mandate. Under the new Affordable Care Act, US citizens needed to find a health insurance plan to enroll in or pay a tax. Open enrollment has now closed, and those who do not have health insurance and are not in the process of getting enrolled will likely need to pay the Individual Mandate.
There are still a lot of affordable health insurance options available to people of all income levels. If you are confused about what is available to you, you should be able to call up an insurance company and ask any questions that you have about enrolling. There are a variety of plans that you can browse through to see what might be best for you as an individual or your family. The Healthcare Exchange is supposed to be a simple way for you to compare many different plans and see what coverage you can best afford.
The Individual Mandate is a mandatory tax for those who choose to go without health insurance. The tax starts out small, which means you should not have to stress about it too much for the first year if you did not get coverage in time. For individuals, the tax is $95 for 2014 (or 1% of your income), $325 for 2015 (or 2% of your income), and $695 for 2016 (or 2.5% of your income). Children are taxed at half the rate for adults.
If you happen to get insured partway through the year, then the Individual Mandate is pro-rated for however long you went without insurance.
You should be able to find affordable health insurance plans through the right insurance exchanges. Although the tax penalty might be more appealing at first, you will want to weigh the advantages and disadvantages carefully over the coming years. In many cases, you may be able to find an insurance plan that still costs less than what the tax penalty will cost in the future.
If you are reading this on any other blog than JT Insurance Services or via my RSS Feed, it is stolen content without credit.
You can find me on Twitter via @Obamacare_Guru
Come and visit our blog at http://healthplansforyou.com/blog/