What to Do When Losing Coverage and Income?

I’ll make it simple:
We are a Married couple
2015: january-june work and insured through anthem blue shield (both) ; july-december no work and no insurance (both)

Question:
Do we have to pay a fee/penalty when we file in our taxes next year?

If penalty –> How is it possible that we have to pay a fee/penalty when we don’t have an income for the rest of the year? We will be volunteering the rest of the year (6 months).

We both had a salary wage and we were W-2.


Answer

If you are employed for part of the year, then lose employment you should enroll through special enrollment, or Medicaid, or you may owe the fee. The fee and cost assistance are based on annual MAGI income. If income is low enough during the point you are unemployed may be eligible for Medicaid. Make sure to all the Marketplace before your coverage ends and make sure they know about the income you made earlier in the year.

The key to making the right decision is that the fee is based on maintaining coverage or an exemption for each month of the year and is based on annual MAGI income, Marketplace cost assistance is based on annual MAGI, and Medicaid / CHIP can be based on monthly income or monthly income projected over a year depending upon the state.

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Vicky Lakshmi on

I’m unemployed and my insurance runs out next month. what can I do? today is the final day to register and I don’t have money for it and I still have bills to pay

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Ann on

My husband carries our insurance through his employer and will be retiring in May. He is retired military, we will have full Tricare coverage when he reaches 60 in June 2018. Until then we are eligible for free healthcare at an MTF. Do we need to purchase insurance or is it possible to receive a waiver ?

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