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  1. #1
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Millions qualify for health care tax credits

    Tuesday, Apr 09 2013 06:47 PM

    Report: Millions could qualify for health care tax credits

    BY RACHEL COOK Californian staff writer rcook@bakersfield.com

    Nearly 3 million Californians, including about 64,000 Kern County residents, could be eligible for tax credits to purchase insurance via the state's health benefit exchange come 2014, according to a new report out Tuesday.

    The analysis commissioned by Families USA, a nonprofit health care consumer advocacy group based in Washington, D.C., said Californians with incomes up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level -- $94,200 for a family of four or $46,000 for a single person -- will be eligible for the tax credits.


    Related Info

    ARE YOU ELIGIBLE?

    Visit the website for Covered California, the state's health benefit exchange, and plug in your annual household income, number of people in your household, and the age of your family's youngest adult to calculate what your estimated monthly premium and tax credit might be if you bought insurance through the exchange.

    Go to: www.coveredca.com/calculating_the_cost.html .

    Related Graphics
    •Who could be eligible?


    Residents with incomes between 200 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level will account for about half of the those who could be eligible for the tax credits statewide, the report said. The dollar amount of the tax credits that families and individuals receive will be calculated on a sliding scale.

    "The tax credit subsidies are a game changer" that will make health insurance coverage affordable to many people who have been priced out of the market, said Ron Pollack, Families USA's executive director, during a conference call Tuesday morning.

    Carmen Burgos, project manager for the Kern health consumer unit of Greater Bakersfield Legal Assistance, said the report's projection for how many Kern County residents could be eligible for the tax credits seemed a little off.

    "It definitely seems low," Burgos said.

    The report broke down the findings by county, age, ethnicity and employment status, but did not specify how many of the eligible Californians are currently uninsured.

    In Kern County and statewide, the majority of those eligible for the credits will be in households where someone is employed, about 87 percent in Kern County, according to the report.

    Hispanics and young adults may stand to benefit the most from the credits. Hispanics could account for 49.7 percent of those eligible statewide and 59.4 percent of the eligible in Kern County, while adults age 18 to 34 could make up nearly 38 percent of those eligible for the credits statewide and almost 39 percent of Kern County's eligible.

    Kathleen Stoll, director for health policy for Families USA, noted that the report factored out people who will be eligible for Medicaid when that program expands, while including people who could have employer coverage but are still eligible to buy health coverage through the exchange.

    The tax credits will take effect in January 2014, after open enrollment starts in October 2013, the report said.

    http://www.bakersfieldcalifornian.co...re-tax-credits
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  2. #2
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    REPORT: MANY WILL QUALIFY FOR HEALTH CARE TAX CREDIT

    Economist says people are surprised income guidelines go so high

    By Paul Sisson12:01 a.m.April 14, 2013Updated8:02 p.m.April 13, 2013

    How credits compare

    Monthly tax credits by family size and income, calculated at age 35 for family’s youngest adult:

    Family Household Tax credit Remaining

    size - income - premium

    4 - $94,200- $404 $744

    4 - $47,000 - $868 $280

    2 - $62,000 - $658 $491

    2 - $31,000 - $986 $163

    1 - $45,000 - $67 $356

    1 - $23,000 - $303 $121

    Source: Covered California Health Insurance Calculator: www.coveredca.com/calculating_the_cost.html

    A total of 237,310 San Diego County residents will qualify for a health insurance tax credit in 2014, according to a report last week by the nonprofit health advocacy group Families USA.

    Tax credits would be available to uninsured individuals and families earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty level, or $94,200 for a family of four.

    Geoffrey Joyce, a health economist at the University of Southern California, said most people are aware of the new individual mandate — the requirement that all uninsured Americans purchase health insurance from new exchanges starting on Jan. 1 — but few realize that significant subsidies come along with that mandate.

    “I think a lot of people are surprised when they see that the income guidelines for tax credits go so high,” said Joyce, the health policy director for the Leonard D. Schaeffer Center for Health Policy and Economics at USC.

    He said Congress created the credits to soften the blow of mandating coverage in the Affordable Care Act. “If you’re going to mandate that people buy insurance, you have to make it affordable,” Joyce said.

    The new subsidies will be awarded on a sliding scale, with those who make more getting less.

    Covered California is the name of the state’s health care exchange. Though open enrollment is not set to start until Oct. 1, the exchange has posted a calculator on its website that gives uninsured residents an estimate of what they might have to pay for coverage once the individual mandate takes effect in 2014.

    For example, a 35-year-old single mother of three earning about $35,000 per year would pay about $113 per month to cover her family, with the Uncle Sam picking up $1,035 of her estimated $1,149 monthly premium.

    On the other end of the example spectrum, a software engineer earning $94,000 per year with a family of four, also age 35, would pay $744 per month, after receiving a $404 tax credit.

    Covered California’s estimates are just that. Since the exchange has not selected the insurance plans that will be offered to the public, total premium cost is not yet known.

    Rep. Henry Waxman, D-Los Angeles, attended a telephone news conference on the study Tuesday, calling the tax credits “one of the best-kept secrets in the Affordable Care Act.” He, and the president of Families USA, which has been a big supporter of health reform legislation going back to the Patient Bill of Rights under the Clinton Administration, touted the credits as a serious boon for the middle class.

    Joyce, the USC health care economist, agreed that the tax credits represent a serious boon to many families who now either go uninsured or pay a large percentage of their income in health insurance premiums.

    But he noted that this boon does not come without a serious cost. He said the U.S. Congressional Budget Office recently estimated the cost of the health law at about $1 trillion over 10 years and, by far, the bulk of that cost is from new tax credits to subsidize care for 20 million to 30 million currently uninsured Americans.

    “That trillion dollars, almost all of it, is helping people pay for their health insurance,” Joyce said.

    He said the federal government considers the Affordable Care Act to be budget neutral because it raises money through higher taxes on some groups like medical device manufacturers, drug companies and high wage earners and through lower reimbursements for doctors and hospitals.

    “It’s about $500 billion in taxes and about $500 billion in payment reductions,” Joyce said.

    http://www.utsandiego.com/news/2013/...alth-care-tax/
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  3. #3
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Texans to be eligible for health care tax credits

    New rules on premiums to start in 2014

    By Matthew Waller Scripps Texas Newspapers
    Posted April 11, 2013 at 10:35 p.m.


    Tax credit breakdown for Taylor County

    According to “Help Is at Hand: New Health Insurance Tax Credits in Texas.” Full report online here

    People eligible (138 percent to 400 percent of federal poverty level): 11,810

    Percent of those eligible with family not employed status: 10.9 percent unemployed

    Percent of those eligible by age: under 18 (26.2 percent), 18-34 (37.8 percent), 35-54 (25.7 percent), 55 and older (10.3 percent)

    AUSTIN — Starting in 2014, when new health insurance rules take effect under the Affordable Care Act, millions of Texans also will be eligible for tax credits that will take much of the bite out of health insurance premiums.

    Congressmen and policy analysts in support of federal health care reform held a teleconference Thursday to explain how that key component of President Barack Obama’s signature Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) would affect Texas, promoting the study with county-by-county data. The study is titled “Help Is at Hand: New Health Insurance Tax Credits in Texas.”

    “It will ensure that insurance is affordable for working Texans of modest means,” Democratic U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett said in the conference.

    A report released Thursday by supporters of the new health care insurance system states that in 2014 almost 2.6 million Texans could get tax credits on premiums to help pay for health coverage.

    Enrollment application starts Oct. 1, and the credits go into effect in January 2014.

    People will be able to buy the insurance on a website, similar to the way used to purchase airplane tickets, Doggett said.

    Starting in 2014, people who don’t have health insurance will pay a penalty: $95 per adult and $47.50 per child, to a maximum of $285, or 1 percent of the family income, whichever is greater.

    The 2.6 million cited in the report assumes the projected expansion of Medicaid, government health care for the poor, would go ahead in Texas. Gov. Rick Perry has been loath to expand Medicaid, not trusting the federal government will be able to handle the cost and not wanting to expand a “broken system.”

    Without the expansion, states could see an additional 422,000 people added to the 2.6 million who might be eligible for the tax credit, Doggett said.

    The tax credit is structured so it would become effective immediately for applicants, who would not have to pay the full premium in advance and wait a year for a tax refund. The amount would be calculated through a formula that takes into account family size, income and place of residence.

    Texans with incomes from 100 percent of the federal poverty level to four times the federal poverty level ($94,200 for a family of four) could get tax credits.

    http://www.reporternews.com/news/201...alth-crae-tax/
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  4. #4
    Senior Member JohnDoe2's Avatar
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    Nearly 869,000 in N.C. eligible for health-insurance tax credits

    http://www.bizjournals.com/charlotte...gible-for.html

    Charlotte Business Journal-by Jennifer Thomas-Apr 3, 2013

    A recent study by Families USA found that some 869,000 North Carolinians would be eligible for tax credits to offset the cost of buying health ...
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