Understand Obamacare regulations and recent changes for Americans. Get the Money Girl book at http://MoneyGirlBook.com
Money Girl
338 MG Obamacare: News, Rules, and Updates
Cheers to fall at Whole Foods Market with sales through October 29th. Select frozen pizzas are 50% off with prime, so stock up and be ready for game day. Hosting a cozy dinner? There's a sale on hearty no antibiotics ever beef-chuck roast and stew meat. Or be the best guest ever and bring a robust bottle of Bordeaux wine. Or specialty cheese like Humboldt fog. Cheers to fall at Whole Foods Market must be 21 or older, please drink responsibly. Building a portfolio with Fidelity Basket Profolios is kinda like making a sandwich. This is simple as picking your stocks and ETFs, sort of like your meats and other topics. And managing it as one big juicy investment. That's pretty good. Learn more at Fidelity.com/baskets. Investing involves risks including risk of loss, Fidelity Broker Services LLC, member and YSC-SIPC. Hello podcast listeners. Welcome to another weekly edition of Money Girl. I'm Laura Adams, the author of Money Girl Smart Moves to Grow Rich. Grab a copy of the paperback or e-book from your favorite bookseller. If you thought healthcare reform, also known as Obamacare, was already confusing? Well, there have been some recent changes that make it even more perplexing. In this episode I'll tell you what you need to know about the rules so you meet key deadlines and comply with the law. Obamacare is a nickname for the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, also known as ACA, which became law in 2010. It offers Americans new benefits, rights and protections for healthcare. Most notably, when you shop for health insurance, you may qualify for a subsidy that reduces the cost of coverage depending on your income and family size. But the law also requires you to have insurance starting in 2014. Did you get that? Starting in 2014, if you don't have health insurance, you're breaking the law unless you qualify for a healthcare exemption. I'll put a link to these exemptions in the notes for this show on the Money Girl page at quickanddirtytips.com. The penalty for not having health coverage is $95 per adult and $47.50 per child or 1% of income whichever is higher. However, individuals won't be penalized on the first $10,000 of income and families won't be penalized on their first $20,000. Additionally, the Obamacare penalty has a ceiling. It can't be more than the average annual cost of the least expensive health plan. But I can't tell you what that number is yet because it's not available until next year. But here's an example. Let's say you're a single person who earns $40,000. If you decide to opt for the penalty, instead of buying health insurance, your penalty would be $300. While this may seem low, the penalty does increase substantially in 2015, 2016, and beyond. When you file your income tax return, the penalty gets added to the amount of tax you owe, or if you overpaid tax throughout the year, the penalty will be subtracted from your refund. As I previously mentioned, the health care law requires every American to have health insurance, no matter if you're employed, underemployed, unemployed, or self-employed. If you lose your job-based health coverage, you have two options, cobra coverage or an Obamacare plan. Chiara is a federal law that allows you to keep your group plan for up to 18 months after your employment ends. But it's typically much more expensive because you must pay the full monthly premium, including any amount that your employer had contributed before. Now that we're in Q4, it's a good time to start thinking about making memories with the people you love most before the end of the year. We put a lot into the time we spend with our loved ones. But you want to extend that care, comfort, and peace of mind to what happens when you're gone. 41% of people don't have the life insurance coverage they need. Policy genius makes finding and buying life insurance a breeze. With policy genius, you can find life insurance policies at start at just $292 a year for a million dollars of coverage. And some options are 100% online and let you avoid unnecessary medical exams. Policy genius combines digital tools with the experience of real licensed agents. You can compare quotes from America's top insurers side by side for free with no hidden fees. They have an amazing licensed support team that helps you get what you need fast so you can get on with your life. They answer questions, handle paperwork, and advocate for you throughout the process. Policy genius is the country's leading online insurance marketplace. And even if you already have life insurance through work, remember it may not protect all your family's needs or follow you if you leave your job. So save money and time on providing a financial safety net for your family. Head to policygenius.com or click the link in the description to get your free life insurance quotes and see how much you can save. That's policygenius.com. I love learning and anything that makes learning easier. If you're a parent and your child needs some homework help, then Ixcel is a right for your family. Ixcel is an online learning program for kids covering math, language arts, science, and social studies. Ixcel has interactive practice problems for topics from pre-k to 12th grade and everything is organized by grade and subject. As kids practice, they get positive feedback, awards, and explanations for wrong answers. Ixcel figures out what your kids need more help with and recommends more topics to practice. Their videos, lessons, sample problems, and learning games, too. One subscription to Ixcel gets you all subjects and all grade levels. Membership started just $9.95 a month. It's no wonder Ixcel is used in 95 of the top 100 school districts. I think the positive feedback that Ixcel gives is really crucial when it comes to learning. So make an impact on your child's learning, get Ixcel now, and money girl listeners can get an exclusive 20% off Ixcel membership when they sign up today at ixl.com/moneygirl. Visit ixl.com/moneygirl to get the most effective learning program out there at the best price. Here are three changes that have been made to Obamacare that you should know. Number one, canceled health plans might be allowed. Not only does the ACA require you to have health insurance starting in 2014, but it says that you must have a qualified plan with a minimum set of benefits. Problem is, getting a new and improved plan turns out to be more expensive for many Americans, and President Obama got a lot of flack about it. As a result, the government recently announced that insurers could allow you to keep your existing plan through 2014, even if it doesn't have the minimum benefits to comply with the health care law. But could is an important part of the announcement. Insurance is regulated by states, not the federal government. So the final call on this proposed change is up to the insurance commissioner in each state. Then it's up to insurers who offer policies in those states, whether renewing canceled policies is a smart business move. The bottom line is that if your insurance company has told you that your health plan is being canceled, you may still be able to keep it. Just remember that you may not get some of the benefits of other plans under Obamacare. My recommendation is to shop around, use a site like insurance quotes dot com to find out if you can get a qualified plan with more coverage for a lower price. Change number two, high risk pool coverage is extended. The Obama administration is also extending coverage for those enrolled in state high-risk pools. These are private plans organized by states to cover certain individuals with pre-existing conditions who previously couldn't get health insurance on the open market or through an employer. Starting in 2014, Obamacare prohibits insurers from denying you coverage or raising your rate if you have a pre-existing medical condition. So high-risk coverage was supposed to end on December 31st, 2013, but it will now continue another month through the end of January to give high-risk enrollees more time to transition into regular health plans. And change number three, there's more time to get enrolled. Another important change to Obamacare is a delay in the deadline for enrolling in coverage. It was moved back from December 15th to December 23rd after the government's infamous botched website launch made it difficult for many to shop. If you missed the December 23rd deadline, you can still get coverage because open enrollment lasts until March 31st of 2014. However, if you want coverage to begin on January 1st, you must sign up by December 23rd. If you have questions about Obamacare, be sure to email them to me at money@quickendertietips.com or post them on the MoneyGirl Facebook page. I answer many listener questions on the free MoneyGirl newsletter, so be sure to sign up. Everything I mentioned, including all my social media links and the newsletter sign-up, is on the MoneyGirl page at quickendertietips.com. To read a transcript of this show, look for episode number 338 called Obamacare News Rules and Updates. I'm glad you're listening to Ching. That's all for now. Courtesy of MoneyGirl, your guide to a richer life. If the new Chicken Big Mac at McDonald's looks like a Big Mac, has sweet buns and sauce like a Big Mac, but has two chicken patties, then it's not not a Big Mac. I participate in McDonald's for a limited time. Imagine what's possible when learning doesn't get in the way of life. At Capella University, our FlexPath Learning Format lets you learn on your own schedule. A different future is closer than you think, with Capella University. Learn more at Capella.edu. [BLANK_AUDIO]