Yes, the passage of the Affordable Care Act required insurance carriers to provide coverage to all applicants regardless of current or previous medical conditions. Also, insurance carriers can not charge a higher premium if individuals have a medical condition.

Open enrollment is November 1- December 15 each year, but occasionally it is extended.

The government will take the information you provided on your application on healthcare.gov (or your state marketplace website) and will determine based on your income and tax household size what amount of monthly tax credit you are eligible for.

This tax credit is then paid directly to the health insurance carrier that you chose, which will lower the amount that you are responsible to pay as a premium each month.

This is the tax form that is mailed in January to all who received tax credits in a given tax year. This form needs to be included in your tax return each year to reconcile the amount of tax credit you received versus the amount you should have received.

Yes. You are required to file a tax return every year you received a premium tax credit even if you only received the tax credits for as little as one month.

Only if you have a qualifying “Special Enrollment Reason.” Life changes such as a birth or death of someone on your application or a marriage or divorce trigger a window of time called a Special Enrollment Period where you can sign up for health insurance coverage outside of open enrollment.

Other qualifying reasons include losing existing insurance coverage, moving outside of the coverage area of your existing carrier, being found ineligible for Medicaid or Chip, or losing Medicaid or Chip.

The health insurance carriers pay us as your agents for as long as your policy is in effect. There is no extra charge for you to use us as your agent.

Yes. The insurance plans that are compliant with the ACA cover mental health therapists as a primary care doctor visit and psychologists as a specialist visit. They also cover inpatient therapy such as drug and alcohol rehabilitation.

For children, most plans include vision coverage but not dental; however, some plans may include dental cleanings for children. A stand-alone plan is required for full dental coverage for children. For adults, vision and dental are never included and stand-alone plans are required for full coverage.

When comparing plans, it is good to know if your doctor and local hospital is in network with a chosen insurance carrier, as there are no out-of-network benefits offered on the local ACA plans.

It is important to understand four different terms that will help you evaluate the insurance coverage offered by the different plans:

• A premium is the amount you pay each month to keep your coverage.

• Deductible is the amount you are responsible for paying before the insurance coverage kicks in.

• Co-insurance or co-payment is the amount you are responsible for paying while splitting costs with the insurance carrier.

• Out-of-pocket maximum is the total amount you are responsible for paying when combining your deductible and co-insurances/co-payments for the calendar year.

Since each situation is different, we will help you evaluate the options offered and determine the best insurance plan for you based on the above criteria.

While there is an option that you can select to auto-reenroll, it isn’t automatic.

We don’t recommend that you let your plan reenroll each year because the plans change and your premium tax credits change every year. Because of this, we recommend you take the time to meet with us every year.

Yes, we offer short-term medical insurance as well as hospital indemnity plans and accidental medical coverage.

Yes. However, you won’t be eligible for the advanced premium tax credit nor the cost sharing reductions nor the cost sharing reductions. So, your coverage would be more expensive. If you would like to be eligible for those two programs, you would need to lose your other coverage and your income must fit the program parameters.