Eligibility For Subsidies From Affordable Care Act’s Health Insurance Marketplace ? Still Too Expensive For Texans
According to a report released by Rice University’s Baker Institute for Public Policy and the Episcopal Health Foundation, one of the main reasons why Texans refuse to avail any health insurance plan in the ACA marketplace is due to its expensive costs.
Reports show that all of the 2 million uninsured Texans are aware of the ACA Marketplace as well as the available subsidies for health insurance premiums. Among this population, one-third looked for information among the health insurance plans available, the second one-third planned to look for information in the future and the last still did not enroll in health insurance plans. Their main reason was it was still too expensive for them or they did not have enough money to pay for health insurances at that time.
Based on some reports, they also found out that one of the reasons why Texans still did not enroll in health coverage is because the cost is new to them. Even with the available subsidies in the Marketplace, they would still have to pay which therefore results to an added expense which was not part of the family budget before. Others also believe that they do not need to apply for health coverage and can still use charity care programs that offer free or discounted medical care on a pay-as-you-go basis.
As to those who did not buy insurance, they are required to pay a penalty to 1 to 2.5 percent of income on their 2014 tax return which is almost equivalent to $95 to a rising price of $695.