Obamacare goes into effect next year: What you need to know
Ryan Scott
The Obama administration’s Affordable Care Act (ACA), more commonly referred to as Obamacare, will begin taking effect in January 2014.
People can begin enrolling for benefits in the Health Insurance Marketplace on Oct. 1of this year.
The health insurance marketplace will allow those who need to obtain coverage to apply in one place and view all of their options for enrollment.
The insurance plans available in the marketplace will be supplied by privatized companies in an effort to facilitate favorable competition for people needing healthcare.
The marketplace plans and requirements will vary from state to state.
Businesses will also have new regulations and obligations to abide by once Obamacare takes effect.
“It’s been really aggravating,” said Caitlin Klingaman, head of Human Resources for her company here in Arizona.
She is responsible for the transition once the act gets put in place, however, the requirements for compliance have been pushed back to 2015 for the business sector.
This is largely due to the fact that the business side of the law is still being written, according to a seminar Klingaman attended on the subject.
Klingaman expressed that her main concern is the lack of details and the inability for them to plan ahead which is “terrifying.”
Gov. Jan Brewer has organized the Office of Health Insurance Exchange to handle the organization of the Health Insurance Marketplace for Arizona, but there are no details on specifics as of yet.
With the ACA, all citizens will be required by law to carry minimum required preventative care insurance.
People who don’t adhere to the requirements of the ACA will be subject to penalties starting next year.
For 2014 the fee will be 1 percent of the individual’s annual income or $95, whichever is greater.
In 2016 this fee will increase significantly to 2.5 percent of the individual’s annual income or $695, whichever is greater.
Individuals will be subject to these penalties if they are uninsured for more than three months of the year.
The ACA will also make individuals without coverage responsible for the entire cost of their medical bills, which will not be subsidized in any way.
“I don’t like it at all,” said Ryan Heilman, a current MCC student on the topic of Obamacare.
“I feel like forcing someone to do something against their will is ridiculous,” added Heilman, who describes himself as a Libertarian and believes that the correct direction would be to move towards privatizing health care as opposed to having it subsidized by the government.
