This is the first year residents who are filing their 2014 federal taxes may incur a penalty through the IRS on their tax return if they failed to have health insurance for more than three consecutive months in 2014. Given that some residents may become aware of the penalty for the first time this year, Washington Healthplanfinder will open a Special Enrollment Period for these individuals so they can get coverage and avoid the penalty for not having coverage in 2015. These individuals as well as those who were unable to meet the Feb. 15 deadline can apply for the Spring 2015 Special Enrollment Period.
As I noted last night, I've had to restructure my national projections due to the IRS verification issue on Saturday, the massive snowstorms in the northeast and other odds & ends which have led practically every state (except for HI, KY, MN & VT) to announce some sort of enrollment extension period. A few are "full" extensions (ie, you don't have to have already started the process yet); most are "waiting in line" extensions (you have to have already started your application as of midnight Sunday).
The cut-off dates also vary widely, from as soon as Friday the 20th (California) to as late as Saturday the 28th (Maryland & New York). A few haven't given any hard date, although the 28th is the most practical cut-off point (at least for coverage to start the next day, that is).
Anyway, here's my revised estimates of how the final week of the official Open Enrollment Period played out...and how I expect the "overtime" period to look:
Yesterday I poked fun at many of the ACA exchanges for issuing vaguely-worded, non-specific statements about "making sure that everyone who tried" to enroll by midnight would be assisted, without any particular deadlines being given or other specifics.
Since then, most of the exchanges which hadn't done so already have clarified the extension policies--hard end dates, what the procedure is and so on.
And then there's Your Health Idaho, which features this on their home page:
OK, the HHS/CMS Dept. has issued the following...the cut-off date for the "overtime" period is 1 week (Sunday, February 22):
“We are pleased that the vast majority of consumers were able to apply and pick a plan through HealthCare.gov or its call center without a problem. For those consumers who were unable to complete their enrollment because of longer than normal wait times at the call center in the last three days or because of a technical issue such as being unable to submit an application because their income could not be verified, we will provide them with a time-limited special enrollment period for March 1 coverage."
Addition background information from CMS:
This special enrollment period (SEP) will start on February 16, 2015, and end on February 22, 2015.
Enrollments completed during the SEP will have an effective date of March 1, 2015, to align with the coverage effective date the consumer would have received had they been able to complete the enrollment process by February 15, 2015.
Considering that not one, not two, but forty-six states have announced some sort of open enrollment extension period, and considering that yesterday's IRS tax verification outage (and other technical issues in Washington State) may have caused the delay of a whopping half a million QHP selections or more, it behooves me to bite the bullet and modify The Graph to accomodate the new situation.
The main thing to notice is that although I've made some significant adjustments to my individual state projections, my overall final projections haven't really changed at all (aside from nudging the HC.gov/State Exchange split from 9.4M/3.1M to 9.5M/3.0M). I'm still calling for around 12.5 million QHP selections in the end (possibly a bit less than that); I've just bumped out the target date from 2/15 to 2/28.
Just a few hours ago, Access Health CT issued what seemed to be a fairly solid, hard-line statement about midnight tonight being their open enrollment deadline.
Apparently the moves made by HC.gov, CO, NY, CA, MA, WA & MD (just moments earlier) got to Connecticut...
MARYLAND HEALTH CONNECTION ALLOWING PEOPLE WHO HAVE BEGUN ENROLLMENT APPLICATIONS TO COMPLETE THEM UNTIL FEB. 28
BALTIMORE (Feb. 15, 2015) — Due to high demand during this final weekend of open enrollment for 2015, Maryland Health Connection is allowing people to complete their enrollments until Feb. 28, 2015. Marylanders need to have started an enrollment application at MarylandHealthConnection.gov or have contacted the call center at 855-642-8572 before midnight Sunday, Feb. 15 to be able to complete the process by Feb. 28.
After midnight Sunday, MarylandHealthConnection.gov will include the message: "Open enrollment for 2015 has ended. If you began to enroll by the February 15 deadline but were not successful, please check the box below and you may go ahead and complete your enrollment. You must finish your enrollment no later than February 28. … [ ] I started an application or called the call center to enroll by the February 15 deadline but was not able to complete my enrollment.”
I've confirmed that Rhode Island's weather-induced enrollment extension is indeed state-wide and is of the "full" variety (ie, people can start the application process, not just finish it), through February 23rd. This is exactly the same policy that the Massachusetts exchange announced the other day.
This morning, in light of yesterday's major income verification outage at the IRS, HHS Sec. Burwell's comments from the other day, the massive snowstorm impact in Massachusetts, Rhode Island and DC, and a series of "waiting in line" extension period announcements by various state exchanges, I revised my QHP selection projections:
11.7 - 12.0 million by midnight tonight (EST)
12.2 - 12.5 million by 2/28 (that's the final "waiting in line" date given by New York)
Since I'm not a big fan of "ranges", I'm going to pin down my final call more closely:
11.9 million by midnight Eastern
12.4 - 12.5 million by 2/28, and for good measure...
9.5 million via Healthcare.Gov + 3.0 million via the state exchanges
Yesterday, Tami Luhby of CNN Money posted an article focusing on people who received a federal tax credit for part of all of 2014, but who will now have to pay some or all of it back to the IRS when they do their taxes because their household income ended up being higher than they had anticipated:
Janice Riddle got a nasty surprise when she filled out her tax return this year.
The Los Angeles resident had applied for Obamacare in late 2013, when she was unemployed. She qualified for a hefty subsidy of $470 a month, leaving her with a monthly premium of $1 for the cheapest plan available.
Riddle landed a job in early 2014 at a life insurance agency, but since her new employer didn't offer health benefits, she kept her Obamacare plan. However, she didn't update her income with the California exchange, which she acknowledges was her mistake.
Now, she has to pay back the entire subsidy, which is forcing her to dip into her savings.
Janice Riddle has to pay back her entire Obamacare subsidy.
