What does Obamacare cover? Who is eligible to apply for ACA health insurance in Florida? Learn about the specifics from Obamacare ACA!
Many people simply refer to the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act as Obamacare but not as many know and understand how beneficial it can be to people who are in need of health insurance. It is also simply referred to as the ACA and it was signed into an existing law in 2010 by then-President of the United States Barack Obama. This particular bill was a major overhaul within the United States health care system with a goal of reducing the amount the money that was being spent on uncompensated care that many average income families pay paid for. The plan originally required that everyone had to have some type of health insurance and it even offered cost a-sistance to those who could not afford to obtain a health insurance plan through their employer or on their own
The original health insurance requirements within the Obamacare plan included a tax penalty for anyone who did not purchase a health insurance plan, known as the individual mandate. There were penalties put in place to help offset the cost to pay for medical care for people without health insurance and were experiencing some type of hardship situation or were exempt from this law in some way.
When Donald Trump was President, he managed to pass a tax bill that included repealing the individual mandate in December of 2017. This repeal is still in place currently and it allows people without health insurance plans in place to avoid paying a penalty. Some states, such as Hawaii, Connecticut, California, Rhode Island, Washington, Minnesota, and Maryland, have their own individual mandates in place. Many states, including Ohio, have had governors and state legislators that opted to allow for Medicaid expansion through the Obamacare program which means many single adults without any independents can still have health insurance in place which is been very beneficial for people with chronic health issues, serious health issues such as cancer, and even people with addiction problems since they can obtain medications that can help them eliminate their drug dependency.
The Obamacare program covers a variety of different services, including pregnancy care, care for newborns, hospitalization, preventative care, outpatient care when a person is not admitted into the hospital, emergency room care, mental health and substance abuse disorder services, rehabilitative services, laboratory services, and pediatric care.
The great thing about Obamacare is that no insurance company can refuse to cover someone or charge a person more for their health insurance plan if they already have a pre-existing condition. This means if someone already has cancer, for instance, and was diagnosed before obtaining their new health insurance plan, the new plan has to cover all of their treatments and anything else related to their cancer diagnosis.
For people to be eligible to enroll in health care coverage through the Healthcare Marketplace online, the person must reside in the United States and must be a United States citizen or a national or someone that is lawfully present in the United States. That means that many people with different immigration statuses can fall under the eligibility list for the Marketplace. Also, for inmates who are incarcerated in prison or jail, they are not covered under Obamacare and anyone who has Medicare coverage is not eligible to use the Marketplace to purchase either health insurance or dental plans through the Marketplace.
Obamacare ACA has three main goals, with the number one goal being that it is put in place to make healthcare insurance affordable and available to more people than ever before. The law provides people with premium tax credits that can lower the costs for their household overall if they have incomes between 100 percent and 400 percent of the poverty level. People who have an income level above 140 percent of the poverty level may even still qualify for this premium tax credit as of 2022. If a person has an income level that is at or below 150 percent of the poverty level, that person may qualify to be able to enroll in coverage through the marketplace through a special enrollment period or even change their coverage within the Marketplace format. The plan is also designed to expand the Medicaid program so that all adults with income levels below 138 percent of the poverty level are covered by health insurance. The issue is that not all states have expanded their Medicaid programs to include those people with that type of income level. Lastly, the program is designed to provide innovative medical treatment that can help lower the cost of health care overall.
If you have lost a job, experienced the birth of a child, moved to a new coverage area, lost your existing healthcare coverage, or had another major family event, such as a divorce, death, or even marriage, you may qualify in the Marketplace under the Obamacare plan. This includes those that find themselves without any health insurance but are not eligible for any of those qualifying events. They may even be able to enroll in a short-term plan depending on which state they live in.
The open enrollment period for the Obamacare plan is when everyone can log onto the Marketplace site and shop around for a health insurance plan that is best for them for the upcoming new year. This takes place from November 1st to around the middle of December each year for health care coverage that will begin on January 1st of the new year. If a person does not enroll in a plan during this time period, they may not be eligible unless they have experienced one of the qualifying events that we discussed above.
There are many different types of insurance available for both families and individuals in the United States, either through employers, through insurance that people have obtained on their own, or through the Healthcare Marketplace. These include Health Maintenance Organization (HMO), Preferred Provider Organization (PPO), Exclusive Provider Organization (EPO), Catastrophic Plan, Point-of-Service Plan (POS), and High-Deductible Health Plan with or without a Health Savings Account.
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GST taxpayers can't claim any pending input tax credit if this return is not filed by November 30, 2024 for FY 2023-24
