Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
In Your Mailbox Soon: 2014 Health Insurance Tax Reporting Forms
If you're among the millions of consumers who got financial help for health insurance last year under President Barack Obama's law, better keep an eye on your mailbox. The administration said Monday it has started sending out tax reporting forms that you'll need to fill out your 2014 return. Like W-2s for health care, they're for people who got health insurance tax credits provided under the law. (Alonso-Zaldivar, 1/12)
Kaiser Health News consumer columnist Michelle Andrews writes: "In addition to the normal thrills and chills of the income tax filing season, this year consumers will have the added excitement of figuring out how the health law figures in their 2014 taxes. The good news is that for most people the only change to their normal tax filing routine will be to check the box on their Form 1040 that says they had health insurance all year." (Andrews, 1/13)
Some people, though, opted against the tax credits -
Grace Brewer says she never thought she would be without health insurance at this stage of her life. "I'm a casualty of Obamacare," says Brewer, 60, a self-employed chiropractor in the Kansas City, Kansas, area. She wanted to keep the catastrophic health insurance plan she once had, which she says fit her needs. But under the Affordable Care Act, the government's health care reform law, the plan was discontinued because it did not comply with the law's requirements, and her bills doubled to more than $400 a month. "I wanted a minimal plan and I鈥檓 not allowed to have it," she says. "That seems like an encroachment on my freedom." (Leonard, 1/12)
