Here’s a newsflash the mainline media and political pundits haven’t figured out yet —  IT DOESN’T MATTER WHAT WASHINGTON DOES ABOUT OBAMACARE, market forces will determine the fate of Obamacare, which insurance products get offered in the future, and who can buy them.

America still runs on a free market economy, but rather than allowing the health insurance industry to function efficiently in a free market, the government has put more market controls on it than any other industry in our economy.

So far everyone seems to be focused on Obamacare as a political problem in need of a political solution; they are missing the more important and unstoppable forces at work that have nothing to do with elections and who has the power to make laws

You may have recently received a letter from your insurance company advising you that you have to re-apply for coverage for the 2018 plan year. They may have told you it can be as easy as just paying the new higher premium, and it can, but don’t.

Do not renew your health plan until you have spoken with a knowledgeable agent and examined your options carefully.

You may even be one of those people who found out the hard way that their insurance wasn’t accepted by their doctor, or that even Obamcare plans have lots of exclusions.

Many people made the mistake of assuming that since insurance companies couldn’t exclude people from coverage, it meant that everything was covered. Unfortunately, that’s not true. There are lots of things that aren’t covered by most health plans. Some insurance companies cover things others don’t.

If you want to make sure you have an insurance policy that covers what you need to be covered and still gives you great value, talk to an expert.

If you think all the kinks have been worked out of the system, you’re wrong.

The big bug in the system this year that will jump up and bite many people in the behind is that most plans sold on the healthcare.gov exchange DON’T include pediatric dental in the coverage, but the law requires you to have it.

Now, if you’re an adult without children on the plan, you have nothing to worry about. However, if you have children on your health plan you must purchase separate pediatric dental coverage, or you may be subject to a tax penalty for not having Qualified coverage. It is also possible that the IRS would require you to repay any subsidy you received to help pay your premiums.

DO NOT risk thousands of dollars in potential tax penalties because you assumed the plan bought through Healthcare.gov complied with the law.

Talk to an agent or broker before you buy. It doesn’t cost you a dime and could save you thousands.

House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy has stated the House will move immediately to repeal the Affordable Care Act and will replace the law later after allowing the free market to help correct the rising prices and failing insitutions of the American healthcare system. Both hospitals and insurers are optimistic due to the reduced benefits, shrinking networks, and rising rates of health insurance.

For the next year, individuals with major pre-existing conditions should enroll in an ACA plan.  Everyone else should probably just buy a private plan exempt from the Affordable Care Act. These plans have larger networks, lower deductibles, and cost hundreds of dollars less per month than 2017 Obamacare plans.

Something not often reported are people who are exempt from the mandate. For some folks who don’t qualify for subsidies and are stricken with sticker shock, this should be investigated. You are exempt from the law if the cost of the lowest priced Bronze plan is more than 8% of you household Modified Adjusted Gross Income. This is not uncommon for people in their late 50s and early 60’s, or younger tobacco users, earning over 400% of the federal poverty limit.

If that is your situation, you have three main options. You can do without insurance completely, which is never a good idea, especially if you’re over 50 and have significant financial assets at risk should you incur large medical bills not covered by insurance. You can get a catastrophic plan, and pay almost as much as a Bronze plan. Or you can get a 6-month policy, which you can apply for another 6-month policy when that runs out, that is a fraction of the price of an Obamacare plan, and provides benefits similar to what major medical was before Obamacare. There are some caveats even to doing that, but one of our health insurance experts can explain all those options more fully.

It costs nothing to work with a knowledgeable agent or broker and could save you thousands of dollars.  Our agents are paid flat fees for the health insurance they assist clients with applying for. They make the same amount whether you spend $100 a month on health insurance, or $1,000 a month. So they have no incentive to try to sell you a more expensive plan. In fact, their incentive is to try to save you as much money as possible, so you’ll recommend them to you friends, and they can make more sales.

We specialize in showing clients how by buying much lower cost health plans, and supplementing those plans with some specific extra benefits, to eliminate your risks for the things that are most likely to happen to you, you end up with much better overall coverage, at a much lower cost. We help you get more bang for your insurance buck!

A lot of people, from politicians to simple folk, have talked about rolling back Obamacare if the Republicans took over the Senate and got a bigger majority in the House of Representatives, which they have just done. So what can we expect? Will we still be required to have health insurance in 2015?

The bottom line is that almost nothing will change for at least two years. Any attempt by the Republicans to make any significant change to Obamacare will be vetoed by the President, and the Republicans don’t have enough of a majority to override a veto.

Beyond that fact, and all the rhetoric from the politicians, the truth is that polls are showing that as more and more previously uninsured Americans are getting good health coverage, many for the first time, this is becoming a more popular law. It’s not easy to do away with the law, especially when people have decided they like the law after all. The longer this law stays on the books, and the more popular it becomes, the less likely it is that any significant changes will be made to it, even if the Republicans were to eventually control the Presidency as well.

So what does that mean to you? It means if you do not have health insurance with Minimum Essential Benefits in 2015, you will face penalties more than three times higher than they were in 2014. If you don’t want to see your tax dollars going to pay for someone else’s health insurance, call today to see if you qualify for a tax subsidy of your own, and keep your tax dollars at home, paying for your own health insurance.

The cost of not having health insurance is going up. It is important that consumers understand the tax penalties, so they can make smart decisions about what health insurance to purchase.

The IRS is using the old “carrot and stick” approach. The carrot being subsidies for most people to help them buy health insurance, and the stick is high penalties if they don’t.

In 2014, the penalty was only $95 or 1% of Adjusted Gross Income, per adult, and half that amount per child. For 2015, the tax penalty for not having a Qualified Health Plan, one that meets Minimum Essential Coverage standards, is going to be much higher. The 2015 penalty is $325, or 2% of Adjusted Gross Income, whichever is HIGHER, per adult, and half that for children under 18.

So if you have a family of 5, with an adjusted gross income of $110,000 per year, and your family went without insurance for the entire year, your penalty for the year would be $7,700. That’s $2,200 for each adult and $1,100 per child.

The good news is that for many people, qualified health plans are very affordable. The same family above, that would face a high tax penalty for not having insurance, would actually qualify for a government subsidy to help them pay the cost of health insurance.

CoverOregon, the state’s attempt at running a state-based exchange, never really got off the ground and was canceled after one year.

Oregonians who want to purchase health insurance and use Federal Subsidies to help pay the cost will need to use the Federal Marketplace to verify their subsidy eligibility, but not necessarily to purchase their coverage.

Most people probably heard of the horrific experiences consumers had last year trying to purchase insurance through the Federal Marketplace. It was a nightmare. Many people just gave up and went without insurance. However, with the penalty for not having insurance more than tripling for 2015, that’s not a good option.

Fortunately, agents and brokers, like the highly trained health insurance experts that make up our agency, are here to help consumers through the process – AT NO COST TO YOU!

One of our agents will walk you through the process, step-by-step to help you find the best plan for your needs and budget, and assist you in applying for your subsidy and completing the application for insurance. We make the process easy and stress-free for you, by doing most of the work for you. We’ll help you get the largest subsidy you qualify for. For some people that means being able to get insurance AT NO COST. That’s right, with our help you might be able to get FREE HEALTH INSURANCE.

Don’t take a chance on fouling up the application and ending up having to pay a high tax penalty because your application didn’t go through, missing out on thousands of dollars in subsidies that you are entitled to, or getting a plan that doesn’t allow you to go to the doctors you want.

CALL FOR A FREE QUOTE TODAY! 503-828-1970