Affordable Care Act or Obama HealthCare will provide tax credits to the low/middle-income group of Americans, thus helping them purchase insurance through state-run insurance exchanges. The coverage will be effective from January 2014. The Congressional Budget Office estimates that by the year 2016, at least 24 million people will get insurance through the state-run exchanges, and another 12 million will continue to get individual coverage outside of them.
The new form released this week for individuals who want to apply for coverage from private insurers is only around three pages long. This is a remarkable improvement compared to the 21 page draft version introduced earlier this year. The revised application requires individuals to provide information such as social security number, citizenship, job and income details, and current health coverage. The information provided will be cross checked by other federal agencies.
The second important aspect the form takes into consideration is, filing based on need basis. So if you want to apply for family coverage then you have to fill out the 11 page application with additional details. If you don’t need any financial assistance, then a four page form is what you need to fill up and you don’t have to disclose your income either.
These forms are the latest attempt to make the state-based health insurance exchanges ready for open enrollment from October 1 of this year. Consumers can submit the required information via the paper forms, by phone or online and get a quick response (within a week or two) as to whether they are eligible for the expanded Medicaid coverage. If they are eligible, the responses will also explain what kind of subsidies applicants qualify for.
The form released will be used in the 33 states with federally managed exchanges. The other 17 states that chose to design their own exchanges will also receive the form.
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