A belated Happy New Year!
Now that your health insurance is in place for another year, I hope it provides you the peace of mind you were looking for and that you’ll have little need of it.
What’s important now is to keep your plan active. A plan termination due to an unintended non-payment can be costly, and not just for the potential exposure to high health care costs. If your plan is canceled, you could be unable to restart coverage until next January. In addition to lack of insurance, you could be fined for not having ACA-compliant coverage.
This fine is called the individual shared responsibility payment and it’s administered by the IRS at tax time. The IRS will bill you for the fine or hold back the amount from any tax refund due to you. Here is a link to learn more information about the fee for not having health insurance in 2016: How Much You Will Pay.
We encourage clients to enroll in their carrier’s automatic bank or credit card payment program so unintended cancellations are less likely to occur. We will be happy to share more information and/or send you the needed form.
All the best in 2016!
Phil Dougherty
OnlyHealthInsurance