The Healthcare Marketplace

[sathor]

January 31st is the deadline, and I decided that I'd rather see what's offered than be forced to pay $625 in penalties in the 2016 tax year. I completed my application, which probably took about 30 minutes of my time, and they processed it. I was surprised to find out that I'm apparently not eligible for anything except for *possibly* medicaid, which means that if I don't get a medicaid notice from my state as a result of this application, I'll be paying the penalties anyway. Now...how does that work exactly?

Does my income filter out possible providers? Why didn't they ask for an estimate of my assets or savings? I made $0 last month, and I will likely make $0 for a few more months of this year at the least - but why does that prevent me from seeing options I can pay for? What in the actual fuck?

The "eligibility" pdf they sent me was a TON of technical jargon, followed by ways to appeal the automated decision...and none of it seemed particularly relevant to my situation. Hurray for bureaucracy!

Comments

[elenbarathi.livejournal.com]

There must be a FAQ site and a Help phone number that can answer these questions. At a guess, I'd say they aren't asking for estimates of your assets or savings because they're going off the information on your 2014 tax return for that sort of thing.

[sathor.livejournal.com]

There were inputs for your income for the current month, as well as your expected income for the following month. Didn't seem to care what I made the previous year (which was approximately what someone makes on minimum wage for a year - disgustingly high for what little work I did, honestly.)

There probably is a help number, but the eligibility readout did tell me I should be receiving something from medicaid through the state as a result of filling everything out. I'll give it a bit and see what happens.

I'm kinda at a crossroads anyway - either I pick up and move, or I tolerate what's available here. Either way I should be getting insurance via some other means, as I really will only put up with not working for so much longer...lol.