Obamacare: Open enrollment Nov 1 to Jan 31

The open enrollment for health coverage under the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) will start on November 1 to January 31, 2015. This will be the 3rd year of health care sign-ups. Covered California officials said that there are still 2 million residents who are uninsured, primarily Latinos and African Americans and 36% of them don't know that they may be entitled to premium subsidies available under the Affordable Care Act. In contrast, only 16% didn't know about the tax penalty for lacking health coverage.

Covered California exchange have 500 storefront locations, they employ thousands of enrollment counselors, and have launched a $29 million advertising campaign and a statewide bus tour, to encourage more Californians to come under the health care umbrella.

They said that about 90% of the 1.3 million Covered California enrollees receive subsidies, and more than 200,000 people pay less than $50 a month thanks to that financial assistance.

For those who are uninsured tax penalties for not having health care coverage will increase again in 2016. Under the federal health care law, those without health insurance in 2016 may be subject to a federal tax penalty, which starts at $695 per person in a household or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater. For a family of four earning $70,000 a year that chooses not to purchase health care coverage for 2016, the tax penalty could be $2,085, according to Covered California.

For a family of three with an annual income of $61,021 living in Los Angeles I got these premium rates: Molina bronze $332, $0 monthly premium assistance, Oscar Bronze $396, Anthem Bronze $398 and Kaiser Permanente $403. Well, if you ask me those rate are expensive no wonder they are not signing up. If they just used the $29 million they pay for advertising in improving the discount then it would have been great.