Here’s what you need to know about Obamacare before you get new health coverage: Here’s your chance to buy affordable health insurance with access to essential services, quality local providers, and much more.
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What you should know about Obamacare
Here’s what you need to know about Obamacare before you get new health coverage: Here’s your chance to buy affordable health insurance with access to essential services, quality local providers, and much more.
The deadline to apply for an Obamacare plan has closed, but you still have an opportunity to sign up we will explain it to you below, along with details such as the types of plans available for Florida, prices, required income, and other aspects.
Stay on the page! In this article, you will find just the information you need regarding what you should know about Obamacare. What Is Obama Care And How Does It Work?
WHAT IS OBAMACARE?
Obamacare is not health insurance itself, but rather the popular name for the Affordable Care and Patient Protection Act (ACA), issued under Barack Obama.
The main objective of this law, authorized by the US Congress in 2010, was to reduce the costs of medical care through more affordable health insurance for the people who needed it most. This included the so-called “middle class”, women, patients with chronic illnesses, and students transitioning from university to their first job, among others.
Obamacare is, in essence, an alternative for insurance companies to offer individual and family plans through the health markets, with guarantees of essential care and with government subsidies for people with specific incomes.
What are these essential care? According to Obamacare, health market plans must offer, at a minimum, the following services:
- Emergency services
- Hospitalization (including surgeries)
- outpatient care
- Laboratory analysis
- prescription drugs
- pediatric care
- Care during pregnancy and after delivery
- Preventive and wellness care (including chronic disease management)
- Consultations for mental health and behavioral disorders
- Services and devices for rehabilitation
With Obamacare, pregnant women and people with underlying diseases would have access to health insurance to cover their treatments without paying additional costs for it; and young people could stay on their parent’s policy until age 26.
The program would also provide an opportunity for economic coverage to those families whose income was insufficient to purchase private health insurance; but not so low as to qualify for government assistance from Medicaid or CHIP, designed for low-income people.
HOW TO ACCESS ACA HEALTH INSURANCE
Regarding what you should know about Obamacare, the health market plays a fundamental role as its access route. It is an Internet platform where you must register to be aware of the plans available in your state for Obamacare, compare them and quote the different offers. In the end, you would select the most suitable insurance for you and your family from there.
Markets or insurance exchanges are administered by the State or by the federal government, as the case may be. In Florida, for example, the federal stock market is in force.
Access to these platforms must be during the open enrollment period, which runs from November 1 to December 15 each year. In that period you can acquire coverage or change the one you already had if you consider it so.
To make the most of those 45 days, we recommend that you start comparing all the costs in the plans that interest you right away. That includes monthly premiums, annual deductibles, copays, and coinsurance. On our website, you will find information that will help you clarify these and other concepts about health insurance in Florida.
What happens if I miss the registration period?
If you miss the annual Marketplace enrollment deadline, you still have an opportunity to purchase Obamacare health coverage. This would be through a special enrollment period, to which you can apply if you lost your plan due to any of these situations :
- Moving to or from a new State
- marry or divorce
- Have or adopt a child
- Losing coverage from your employer or Medicaid
- Changes in your immigration status
Only if you experienced any of these life events could you enroll after December 15 and get an Obamacare health plan in Florida.
WHAT YOU SHOULD KNOW ABOUT OBAMACARE AND ITS PLANS
Obamacare medical plans are distinguished by metal categories in Bronze, Silver, Gold, and Platinum. What differentiates them in principle is the proportion of expenses that each plan assumes, which would be approximately like this:
- Bronze: 60% of coverage costs
- Silver: 70%
- Golden: 80%
- Platinum: 90%
In addition to cost sharing, you can apply for an Obamacare subsidy with these plans. That government subsidy or credit lowers the cost of your insurance premium, so you could pay as little as $0 a month for a standard plan. Silver plan users may also apply for a subsidy to lower their out -of -pocket costs .
The amount of subsidy you receive depends on your estimated annual income. To do this, you must register an income between 100 and 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (NFP), which by 2023 is equivalent to between 13,590 and 54,360 dollars for a person. The lower your income, the higher the subsidy would be.
Prices and requirements for health insurance with Obamacare
In Florida, private health insurance costs around $528 per month. But this figure is reduced if your income makes you eligible for government credits.
For example, a woman under age 30, a Florida resident with minimum income, would pay less than $45 a month in credits. This would save her more than $5,500 a year just in her Obamacare health plan premiums.
Income plays an elementary role in the amount of subsidy to receive. But there are also other requirements that you must meet to be a beneficiary of Obamacare in Florida. Among them are:
- Be a US citizen or have legal immigration status in the country
- not be incarcerated
- Have no other Medicare or employer coverage
- Not be declared as an economic dependent of another person
In addition, you need to have some papers up to dates such as the updated tax return from the IRS, your Social Security number, and personal information.
Save time now and start preparing your documentation for the next registration period. Find out what you need to know about Obamacare!
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