My Life Under The Affordable Care Act or My OBAMACARE DISASTER [Vanity]

The Democrats | 02-24-2016 | Red Badger

[Red Badger]

Okay, I've posted very few vanities during my time on FR, but this I believe is important for all FReepers and their relatives, who may be in the same situation.

I signed up for health insurance as required under The Affordable Care Act, using the Healthcare.gov website in November of 2014. Up until that time, my employer provided my family health insurance at no cost to me, but because of the new law was unable to continue doing so for financial reasons.

At that time, the Healthcare.gov website, after having entered my base salary numbers and my wife as sole dependent, informed me that I was eligible for a $1002 Per Month Advance Premium Tax Credit (APTC) as the 'subsidy' is called officially.

My part of the premium to my insurance company, Blue Cross/Blue Shield, was $532 per month.

The year 2015 was a good one for my employer, and I worked a lot of overtime, evenings, Saturdays and even Sundays sometimes. Then, at the end of the year I received a large bonus for all my efforts and good work.

Now, 2016 rolls around and I get my W-2 and received my form 1095-A from the Healthcare Marketplace stating all the money paid by the government to my insurance company and what premiums were paid in total.

I have no investments, other than my 401k Plan, and no rental property or any pensions or such. My wife doesn't work and my only income is from my job.

I get the IRS 1040A and start to fill it out, expecting to pay some extra taxes, since the bonus would have thrown the bi-weekly tax schedules used to determine your Income Taxes during the year a little off.

Having had health insurance all year I did not expect to have to pay any more than that.

BUT, as I continued to fill out the 1040A, and subsequently the Form 8962 that you use to report the APTC on your tax return, I was in for the biggest shock of my entire life.

Filling out the 8962 form, I discovered that I was no longer eligible for the APTC because I had made too much money during the year! According to the form, I had made more than 4X the Federal Government's Poverty Level and therefore would not be able to claim the APTC on my 1040A tax return.

Not only that, but I would read that as a result of that, NOW I WOULD HAVE TO REPAY THE ENTIRE YEAR'S APTC THAT THEY HAD GIVEN TO BC/BS in my name!

That amounts to $12,024.00! Yes, you read that right, OVER TWELVE THOUSAND DOLLARS!

Needless to say, I was, and still am in shock! My wife is hysterical. She's afraid we'll lose the house and be out in prison!

We would have been BETTER OFF NOT HAVING ANY INSURANCE AT ALL for 2015!

The 'FINE', or 'MY FAIR SHARE' as they so ridiculously refer to it in the tax instructions, would have been less than $2000.

So, if anyone asks me what I think about OBAMACARE, I will unequivocally tell them in no uncertain terms that it is the worst disaster ever created for a working man in the middle class.......................................................End of rant, and my apologies to Jim Robinson and the Mods for my vanity.............................

[ozarkgirl]

Don’t know if it will affect your AGI but you can contribute to IRA/401k after year end and still call it prior year.

Contribution Limits and Deadlines
Contributions can be made to your 401(k) once the tax year ends up to the tax filing deadline. If an extension is filed, contributions can be made up to Oct. 15. The contribution limits for 401(k) accounts adjust each year due to inflation. The maximum amount that you can contribute in 2013 is $17,500. In 2012 it was $17,000. If you exceed the specified amount in contributions, you could be subject to a tax penalty.

Contributing After Dec. 31
There are several reasons why someone would make contributions after the tax year ends. For example, if your 401(k) is established late in the tax year, you are likely to have plenty of margin left for additional contributions after Dec. 31. You may also elect to have contributions marked for the previous tax year if you will benefit more by having the tax deduction in the specified year than in the current year.

[Red Badger]

I will look into that ! Thanks!

[Mr. K]

thats with a $6000 deductible too, right?

[ozarkgirl]

Good luck, I hope it works for you.

[Mr. K]

I have gone without health insurance for the last 10 years

I have dealt with x-rays, broken wrist, broken ankle, and all the other house hold medical things and spent $1000’s out of pocket but I am STILL probably about $50K ahead of the game than if I had paid premiums

i have spent over $20K, but my premiums would have totaled $70K over that time- a lot more now

Obamacare makes NO SENSE AT ALL

[Lorianne]

I am sorry this happened to you but you need to get this story out to more people. Get it in the media if you can.

Also, you cannot be the only one this has happened to ... try to find more people and get the word out.

People need to be aware what danger they are in accepting these so-called tax credits.

By the way, it does not work in reverse. If you had made LESS than you predicted you would make, they would not have made up the difference in raising your subsidy.

Many people who do not get a regular salary ... self-employed, those on commission etc are at risk if they guess wrong about what their income will be in the future.

[Lorianne]

good advice. Also if the other spouse does not have a 401K, set one up for her as well and contribute as much as you need to get your combined AGI down to where it needs to be.

They will probably close this loophole in Obamacare soon though.

[jdsteel]

Since Obama care looks at modified adjusted gross income adding to an IRA probably won’t work. 401K contributions may, but I don’t think you can do prior year for that. Your best bet is to have had a business and lots of deductions for that business, make-believe or not. But you didn’t hear that from me.

[Yaelle]

Yes, this is happening to a lot of people. This is one of the many reasons Obamacare is such a disaster.

Did you or your wife have any health crises or anything more expensive than a doctor visit?

We had a great plan, pricy but covered a lot and we could go to the best docs, but it went so far up after Obamacare. In 2014 it was nearly $2000 a month. I had brain surgery in October 2014. In November all the plans (that we could “keep”) went up and few could keep them. Mine was to be $2500 a month (for 6 people) but our income (again, thanks to Obama) had gone wayyyyyy down. I added up all of our medical costs - cash price - for 2014 and it would have been less costly straight up fee for service than it had been paying $2000 a month, and all the copy’s and 20%s.

Yes, it would have cost us less to have no insurance and pay cash for services EVEN WITH MAJOR SURGERY.

So we decided to use Liberty Health Share for 2015. It is for like minded responsible healthy people and families who make an effort to live healthfully, love liberty, and love personal responsibility. It is slightly religious but this healthshare doesn’t insist on a certain religion. Your monthly input actually goes to help other people pay their med bills. We only pay $500 a month for the same 6 people. They have the same as a deductible, ours is $1500 for the year, any person or people’s Med costs. Once that is spent, they cover 100% of everything from any licensed medical professional (except mental health which I wish they would cover for children at least but they do not). 100% coverage! ANY DOCTOR!!

We love it. There have been some misunderstandings in their reimbursement that were easy to clear up. Other than that, they have been great. A very few docs will “accept” them — even if the doctor’s secretary calls up and is informed the bill will be paid in full, they can’t veer from their “insurance script” and insist that “our office doesn’t ‘take’ Liberty.” So we have fronted almost all the money (you don’t have to in hospitals) and had to get it reimbursed. But when you pay cash, you get discounts.

Also, if there is no emergency, I will call around and find a service or doc that is cheaper. WHICH IS AS IT SHOULD BE. Someone down the road doing MRIs for $1000 over elsewhere SHOULD be hurt by the marketplace. Under insurance they are not, no one cares what they charge your insurance company, and it’s a soviet style economy.

I highly recommend at least checking out Liberty Health Share. I learned about it on FR and I am paying it forward. So glad to be out of Obama’s little system. Oh yeah, and it is exempt from tax penalty!!!

[ozarkgirl]

I was afraid of that. Didn’t know how it worked. Certainly they can’t allow hardworking American’s to get ahead.

There’s got to be a way. This whole Obamacare system is BS.

[Billthedrill]

Sincere sympathies - this is the one single reason I declined to retire last year. I did the math and found that if I drew on my investments the premium would go from the quoted $225 to around $930, for a single individual with no dependents. I didn't believe those figures at first but acted on them anyway. Six months later I'm explaining to my landlady why I'm going to stay in the apartment for another year and she said, "I retired last January and that exact thing happened to me and my husband." The numbers were even similar.

This scheme does nothing to guarantee that The Rich Will Pay Their Fair Share, it's a direct and very successful attempt to harm the middle class. It gets a little better once you are under Medicare but essentially the same cute gotchas are still out there.

[Red Badger]

Is it available in Florida?..............

[Yaelle]

Forget Faux.

Since Donald does respond to unusual things sometimes, I would try emailing him and some of his kids with your story. It is so against the American Dream.

[Yaelle]

See my long post above - I would have come out ahead in 2014 even with major surgery. Obamacare sucks.

[Yaelle]

It’s national! Call,go to their website. Everyone stuck in O care should.

https://www.libertyhealthshare.org

[Trailerpark Badass]

My experience is that most medical providers offer significant discounts for patients who pay directly.

[Red Badger]

I just emailed it to their campaign website................

[DFG]

I am an Enrolled Agent.

The Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) is based on household income. This includes non-taxable income such as the non-taxed part of Social Security and non-taxable municipal bonds.

Under IRS notice 2015-9, you can request abatement of the
Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC).

Excess APTC Relief

If you expect to have problems paying the tax for tax year 2015, relief is available and it applies to two situations:

Failure to pay entire balance by April 18, 2016 – late payment penalty abated
Underpayment of estimated taxes – estimated tax penalty waived

You can seek relief by doing the following:

Check Box A on Form 2210, Part II;
Completing the first part of Form 2210; and
To abate the late payment penalty – type in the following statement: “I am eligible for the relief granted under Notice 2015-9 because I received excess advance payment of the premium tax credit.”
To waive the estimated tax penalty - type in the following statement: “Received excess advance payment of the premium tax credit.”

In order to take advantage of the waiver, you must be current with your filing and payment obligations and report the amount of excess APTC on a 2015 tax return timely filed, including extensions.

[Red Badger]

THANK YOU SIR! I WILL LOOK INTO THIS!

FReegards,
Red Badger

[DFG]

I am an Enrolled Agent.

The Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC) is based on household income. This includes non-taxable income such as the non-taxed part of Social Security and non-taxable municipal bonds.

Under IRS notice 2015-9, you can request abatement of the
Advanced Premium Tax Credit (APTC). This relief was in effect for 2014 tax returns but I have not found if it is in place for 2015 tax returns. There is also relief
under 2015-30 for wrong or late 1095-A documents

Excess APTC Relief

If you expect to have problems paying the tax for tax year 2015, relief is available and it applies to two situations:

Failure to pay entire balance by April 18, 2016 - late payment penalty abated
Underpayment of estimated taxes - estimated tax penalty waived

You can seek relief by doing the following:

Check Box A on Form 2210, Part II;
Completing the first part of Form 2210; and
To abate the late payment penalty - type in the following statement: “I am eligible for the relief granted under Notice 2015-9 because I received excess advance payment of the premium tax credit.”
To waive the estimated tax penalty - type in the following statement: “Received excess advance payment of the premium tax credit.”

In order to take advantage of the waiver, you must be current with your filing and payment obligations and report the amount of excess APTC on a 2015 tax return timely filed, including extensions.