Morning Briefing
Summaries of health policy coverage from major news organizations
Some Consumers Favor Narrow Networks If It Costs Less
In all the turmoil in health care, one surprising truth is emerging: Consumers seem increasingly comfortable trading a greater choice of hospitals or doctors for a health plan that costs significantly less money. 鈥淎re they willing to trade choice and access for price? There鈥檚 no question about that,鈥 said Mark Newton, the chief executive of Swedish Covenant Hospital, a Chicago hospital that recently teamed with an Illinois insurer, Land of Lincoln Health, to offer a health plan. (Abelson, 4/13)
The deadline to file taxes is just two days away, and yet nearly half of all uninsured Americans have no idea that they will be subject to Obamacare鈥檚 tax penalty for not having health coverage this year. A new study from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the Urban Institute found that of the uninsured population that will be filing a federal tax return this year, about 47 percent said they didn鈥檛 know anything at all or very little about Obamacare鈥檚 individual mandate penalty. (Ehley, 4/13)
Wednesday鈥檚 deadline for filing income-tax returns marks the first time that Americans without health insurance must pay a tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act, and while it鈥檚 too late to avoid the tax for 2014, there鈥檚 still time to avoid paying the full penalty for this year. In New Jersey, tax preparers are finding that some clients are facing an entirely different problem: having to pay back some of the subsidies they received when they applied to buy health insurance last year. That鈥檚 because those people wound up having a higher income than they estimated when they applied and received the the tax credits. (Kitchenman, 4/13)
Tax day is bringing lousy news to some customers of Colorado鈥檚 health exchange. A Gilpin County couple faces a shocking tax bill of nearly $7,500 after Colorado鈥檚 health exchange set them up with subsidies that their accountant says they now must give back. (Kerwin McCrimmon, 4/13)
And on the topic of the Cadillac tax -
Higher education and its comfortable inhabitants on campus have long been hotbeds of support for Obama and Obamacare. Now, along with business and labor, i.e., the other inhabitants of what passes for the real world, they are about to become victims of ... its high 鈥淐adillac鈥 tax on generous health plans. (Rosenberg, 4/14)
