The residents of that state will need to buy their coverage or they will face a tax penalty for the full year.
Californians who haven’t yet purchased their health insurance plan under the Affordable Care Act have until the end of the day, today, to obtain their coverage and stop themselves from facing a tax penalty for the whole year.
The second, extended enrollment period for the health care reform is now coming to an official close.
Technically speaking, the health insurance enrollment period was supposed to have come to an end in the middle of March, but the government granted people in California until the close of April to be able to avoid having to face the full year’s worth of tax penalties. This was a last chance effort for the people who procrastinated and who still needed some extra time to be able to put their coverage in place. That said, in order to be able to qualify for this extension, residents of the state had to attest that they did not know that they risked facing tax penalties until they actually filed their taxes for 2014 and received the notification.
This extension also applies only to health insurance plans that are sold on the Covered California exchange.
It can also apply to plans that are sold directly through insurance companies. It is important to point out that even for people who do purchase their plans by the end of today, there will still be a 2015 tax penalty that will be applied for having gone without coverage for the first part of this year. That penalty will be pro-rated and it will be calculated based on the amount of time that the person remained uninsured in 2015.
The policies that have been purchased within the last couple of weeks will become effective as of June 1.
Should someone decide not to purchase their health insurance coverage for the rest of the year, and if they do not qualify to do so because their excuse for having done so isn’t on the list of legally valid exemptions, then they will need to pay a penalty that is either 2 percent of their income, or $395, whichever is higher.