Foxnews says that most American’s don’t realize that Obamacare (ACA) signup has a fixed deadline. It’s Mar 31, 2014, about 2 months from this writing. It’s a deadline with yucky consequences in two ways.
- If you don’t signup for insurance by that date, you aren’t allowed to signup at all until the next open enrollment period which begins on Nov 15, 2014 (notice how it’s after the midterm elections?), however they make exceptions if you have a qualifying event (new job, new marriage, etc)
- If you miss that Mar 31 deadline you will be subject to the penalty, which is $95 for the first year OR 1% of your income. Most people who are even aware of the penalty only assume it’s $95. But since you likely make more than $9500/yr your fine/tax/whatever will likely be much more than just $95.
You can avoid all that headache by joining a health care sharing ministry. Â Membership in a qualifying HCSM (Samaritan is one! yay!) exempts you from the individual mandate of the ACA so you won’t pay a fine or tax at all, and you don’t have to pay for overpriced insurance or risk your financial security with the Obamacare website. This site has a ton of great information about Samaritan Ministries and even info on the other two qualifying HCSMs so you can get lots of detail about how easy this switch can be for your family.
Let me know if you have any questions.
Can we still enroll after march 31
Technically, you can join Samaritan anytime, but you can’t signup for an Obamacare insurance company policy after Mar 31 unless 1) Obama changes the law again or 2) you have a qualifying event such as birth, death, marriage, new job, etc. Mar 31 is currently a fixed date for getting insurance through healthcare.gov … Samaritan signup can be done anytime you want, even after Mar 31. To avoid the IRS penalty I think you have to have either insurance or be part of a healthcare ministry (or have another exempted reason) for at least 9 of the 12 months of 2014.
What is the normal time for applying to Samaritan Ministries? How long does the sign up process take?
Just want to make sure I make the deadline of March 31
Thanks for asking! 🙂 You can download and fill out an application from their website (link also available on this site), and mark it to go into effect the day they receive your application in the mail. Or you can future date it for a specific date such as March 1 or Apr 1… we set ours to start when it arrived. Samaritan will email or call you when they have processed your application, that can take about 3-5 days depending on the mail time. Overall it’s a pretty fast process. There’s no underwriting or headaches. Link to the app online is: http://samaritanministries.org/wp-content/uploads/2013/10/20131001-MemberApp.pdf — Just print, fill out and mail.
You are so wrong. My children who are under 26, DEFINITELY beifnet already from the provisions of the Affordable Health Care Act. You guys are living in the Stone Age. Have you ever been to Europe? Have you ever been denied coverage because of a totally unrelated “pre-existing” condition? This law will enable us to move forward and actually begin cutting healthcare costs. THIS is what will bankrupt the US not the provision of universal healthcare, shared by all Americans, as it is in every other civilized country on this planet. Last of all, rationing is what we have NOW in our healthcare system. It’s immoral and despicable.
We will have to agree to disagree. 🙂 I’m glad that your family is being helped by the ACA. There are millions who are hurting from it and this site is just to help those who are hurting find another option. Healthcare sharing ministries are a great solution for several hundred thousand people now and they’re continuing to grow. Europe is not a great model for health care, I would recommend the movie Wait ‘Til It’s Free, which did an intensive study of the European healthcare situation and the trouble they’re having. It’s quite eye opening.