What happens if my income changes and my premium subsidy is too big? Will I have to repay it?

January 15, 2021/in Affordable Care Act, FPL, health insurance exchange, health insurance premiums, health reform, IRS, navigators, Obamacare, premium subsidies, subsidies /by wpmaddoxins

Q: What happens if my income changes and my premium subsidy is too big? Will I have to repay it?

Use our calculator to estimate how much you could save on your ACA-compliant health insurance premiums.

A: Monthly premium subsidy amounts (ie, the advance premium tax credit – APTC – that’s paid to your insurer each month to offset the cost of your premium) are estimated based on prior-year income and projections for the year ahead, but the actual premium tax credit amount to which you’re entitled depends on your actual income in the year that you’re getting subsidized health insurance coverage.

If recipients end up earning more than anticipated, they could have to pay back some of the subsidy. This can catch people off guard, especially since the tax credits are paid directly to the insurance carriers each month, but if overpaid, they must be returned by the insureds themselves.

The issue of reconciling APTCs was explained in a 2013 IRS publication (see the final column on page 30383, continued on page 30384) which clearly explains that they do expect people to pay back subsidies that are in excess of the actual amount for which the household qualifies.

But the portion of an excess subsidy that must be repaid is capped for families with incomes up to 400 percent of federal poverty level (FPL). Details regarding the maximum amount that must be repaid, depending on income, are in the instructions for Form 8962, on Table 5 (Repayment Limitation). These amounts are adjusted annually, but for the 2020 tax year, the repayment caps range from $325 to $2,700, depending on your income and your tax filing status (single filer versus any other filing status). GOP lawmakers considered various proposals in 2017 that would have eliminated the repayment limitations, essentially requiring anyone who received excess APTC to pay back the full amount, regardless of income. But those proposals were not enacted.

There are some scenarios in which repayment caps do not apply:

If a person projected an income below 400 percent of the poverty level (and received premium subsidies during the year based on that projection) but then ends up with an actual income above 400 percent of the poverty level (ie, not eligible for subsidies), the entire subsidy amount that was paid on their behalf has to be repaid to the IRS.
If a person projected an income at or above 100 percent of the poverty level (and received premium subsidies) but then ends up with an income below the poverty level (ie, not eligible for subsidies), none of the subsidy has to be repaid. This is confirmed in the instructions for Form 8962, on page 8, in the section about Line 6 (Estimated household income at least 100% of the federal poverty line). But there are new rules as of 2019 that make it less likely for people with income below the poverty level to qualify for premium subsidies based on income projections that are above the poverty level. This is explained in more detail here.

Is there any help for me if I have to repay premium subsidies?

The IRS noted that they would “consider possible avenues of administrative relief” for tax filers who are struggling to pay back excess APTC, including such options as payment plans and the waiver of interest and penalties for people who must return subsidy over-payments. If you find yourself in a situation where you must pay back a significant amount of the premium subsidies you received during the prior year, contact the IRS to see if you can work out a favorable payment plan/interest arrangement.

It’s also worth noting that contributions to a pre-tax retirement account and/or a health savings account will reduce your ACA-specific modified adjusted gross income, which is what the IRS uses to determine your premium tax credit eligibility. If you had HSA-qualified health coverage during the year, you can make HSA contributions up until the tax filing deadline the following spring. And IRA contributions can also be made up until the tax filing deadline. You’ll want to talk with your tax advisor to see what makes the most sense given your specific circumstances, but you may find that some pre-tax savings end up making you eligible for a premium subsidy afterall, or reduce the amount that you’d otherwise have to repay.

The COVID pandemic caused widespread financial uncertainty and employment upheavals throughout much of 2020. Additional federal unemployment benefits were provided to millions of people, but there are concerns that the premium tax credit reconciliation could be particularly challenging during the 2021 tax filing season, with many people having to repay subsidies that were paid on their behalf during a time they were unemployed in 2020.

In December 2020, insurance commissioners from 11 states sent a letter to President-elect Biden, recommending various immediate and long-term actions designed to improve access to health coverage and care. One of the short-term recommendations is to provide relief from subsidy claw-backs for the 2020 tax year. Even in the best of times, it can be challenging to accurately project your income for the coming year, but the uncertainty caused by the COVID pandemic made this much more challenging than usual. So it’s possible that the Biden administration and/or Congress might be able to take action to provide some relief in this area, for at least the 2020 tax year.

What if you get employer-sponsored health insurance mid-year?

Most non-elderly Americans get their health coverage from an employer. Individual health insurance is great for filling in the gaps between jobs, but what happens if you start off the year without access to an affordable employer-sponsored health insurance plan, and then get a job mid-year that provides health coverage?

If a premium subsidy was paid on your behalf during the months you had individual market coverage, you may end up having to repay some or all of the subsidy when you file your tax return. It all depends on your total income for the year, including income from your new job. If your total income still ends up being in line with the estimate you provided when you applied for your subsidy, you won’t have to pay that money back. But if your actual income for the year ends up being substantially higher than you initially projected, you may end up having to repay some or all of that subsidy when you file your taxes.

It doesn’t matter that your income was lower when you were covered under the individual market plan. In the eyes of the IRS, annual income is annual income — it can be evenly distributed throughout the year, or come in the form of a windfall on December 31. (As noted above, insurance commissioners have urged the Biden administration to consider ways of providing relief on this issue for the 2020 tax year, given that it was even more challenging than normal to accurately project an annual income during the COVID panemic).

Once you become eligible for an affordable health insurance plan through your employer that provides minimum value, you’re no longer eligible for premium subsidies as of the month you become eligible for the employer’s plan. But premium tax credit reconciliation is done on a month-by-month basis, so as long as your total income for the year is still in the subsidy-eligible range, you’ll almost certainly still be eligible for at least some amount of subsidy for the months when you had a plan that you purchased through the exchange.

Finally, if you’re offered health insurance through an employer that you feel is too expensive based on the share you have to pay, you can’t just opt out, buy your own health plan, and attempt to snag a subsidy. The fact that an affordable plan (by IRS definitions) is available to you renders you ineligible for money toward your premiums. Unfortunately, the cost of obtaining family coverage is not taken into consideration when determining whether an employer-sponsored plan is affordable, which leaves some families stuck without a viable coverage option.

How many people have to repay premium subsidies?

For 2015 coverage, subsidies were reconciled when taxes were filed in early 2016. The IRS reported in early 2017 that about 3.3 million tax filers who received APTC in 2015 had to repay a portion of the subsidy when they filed their 2015 taxes; the average amount that had to be repaid was about $870, and 60 percent of people who had to pay back excess APTC still received a refund once the excess APTC was subtracted from their initial refund. [IRS data for premium tax credit reporting is available here; as of 2019, data had only been reported for the 2014 and 2015 tax years.]

But on the opposite end of the spectrum, about 2.4 million tax filers who were eligible for a premium tax credit ended up receiving all or some of it when they filed their return. These are people who either paid full price for their exchange plan in 2015 but ended up qualifying for a subsidy based on their 2015 income, or people who got an APTC that was less than the amount for which they ultimately qualified. The average amount of additional premium tax credit paid out on tax returns for 2015 was $670.

[The IRS noted that it was very uncommon for people to pay full price for their coverage and wait to claim their full refund on their return: 98 percent of the people who claimed a premium tax credit on their return had received at least some APTC during the year.]

Louise Norris is an individual health insurance broker who has been writing about health insurance and health reform since 2006. She has written dozens of opinions and educational pieces about the Affordable Care Act for healthinsurance.org. Her state health exchange updates are regularly cited by media who cover health reform and by other health insurance experts.

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Will you owe a penalty under Obamacare?

January 14, 2021/in Affordable Care Act, health plan enrollment, individual mandate, Obamacare, penalty calculator, tax penalty /by wpmaddoxins

Key takeaways

State penalties: Massachusetts, Washington, DC, New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island have penalties.
There is no longer a federal penalty for being uninsured.
4 million tax filers were subject to a penalty for being uninsured in 2016
Penalties were capped at the national average cost of a bronze plan; states with individual mandate penalties are generally using the state’s average bronze plan rate as a maximum penalty.
Here’s an overview of how the penalty worked
Exemptions were more common than penalties (New exemptions became available in 2018.)
Federal tax return no longer asks about health coverage, but some state returns include that question and Form 8962 is still applicable if you get a premium subsidy.

No longer a federal penalty, but some states impose a penalty on residents who are uninsured

Although there is no longer an individual mandate penalty – or “Obamacare penalty” – at the federal level, some states have implemented their own individual mandates and associated penalties:

Massachusetts implemented an individual mandate in 2006, and it’s remained in effect ever since. The state has not double-penalized people while the federal mandate penalty was in effect, but starting in 2019, the state once again began assessing penalties on people who are uninsured and not exempt. The penalty in Massachusetts is calculated as 50 percent of the cost of the lowest-cost plan that the person could have purchased. There’s no penalty if your income is up to 150 percent of the poverty level. If your income is between 150.1 and 300 percent of the poverty level, your penalty is 50 percent of the premium for the lowest-cost ConnectorCare plan, and if your income is over 300 percent of the poverty level, your penalty is 50 percent of the cost of the lowest-cost bronze plan available through the Massachusetts Health Connector. Revenue generated from the penalty is used to help cover the cost of ConnectorCare coverage for people with income under 300 percent of the poverty level.
New Jersey has implemented an individual mandate, effective in 2019, with a penalty modeled on the ACA’s penalty. The maximum penalty is based on the average cost of a bronze plan in New Jersey. Revenue generated from the penalty is used to fund the state’s new reinsurance program.
The City Council in the District of Columbia approved an individual mandate, with a penalty modeled on the ACA’s penalty. The measure was signed into law by Mayor Muriel Bowser in September 2018, and took effect in January 2019. The maximum penalty is based on the average cost of a bronze plan in DC. Revenue from the penalty is used for outreach and enrollment assistance, as well as programs that improve the availability and affordability of coverage in the District.
California has an individual mandate as of 2020, with a penalty modeled on the ACA’s penalty. Revenue from the state’s individual mandate is used to help cover the cost of the state’s new premium subsidies, which extend to higher income levels than the ACA’s premium subsidies.
Rhode Island has an individual mandate as of 2020, with a penalty modeled on the ACA’s penalty. Revenue collected via the penalty is used to fund the state’s new reinsurance program.

Vermont enacted legislation to create an individual mandate as of 2020, but lawmakers failed to agree on a penalty for non-compliance, so although the mandate took effect in 2020, it has thus far been essentially toothless (the same as the federal individual mandate, which remains in effect but has no penalty for non-compliance). Vermont could impose a penalty during a future legislative session, but the most recent legislation the state has enacted (H.524/Act63, in June 2019) calls for the state to use the individual mandate information that tax filers report on their tax returns to identify uninsured residents and “provide targeted outreach” to help them obtain affordable health coverage.

2014-2018: Everything you need to know about the federal individual mandate penalty

Although the ACA included provisions to make it easier to buy health insurance – including Medicaid expansion, premium subsidies, and guaranteed-issue coverage – it also included an individual mandate that requires Americans to purchase health coverage or face a tax penalty, unless they were eligible for an exemption).

But the GOP tax bill that was signed into law in late 2017 repealed the individual mandate penalty, starting in 2019 (See Part VIII, Section 11081 of the text of the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act). Although the law was enacted in 2017, there was a delay of more than a year before the Obamacare penalty repeal took effect, and people who were uninsured in 2018—after the law was enacted—still had to pay the individual mandate penalty when they filed their tax returns in 2019.

The individual mandate penalty helped to keep premiums lower than they would otherwise have been. There was no Obamacare penalty back when insurers were allowed to reject applicants with pre-existing conditions, but with coverage now guaranteed-issue, it was important to have a mechanism to ensure that healthy people would remain in the pool of insureds. The individual mandate was part of that, but the ACA’s premium subsidies are likely playing an even larger role, as they keep coverage affordable for most middle-class enrollees, regardless of whether they’re healthy or not.

The Congressional Budget Office has estimated that premiums in the individual market will generally trend 10 percent higher without the individual mandate penalty than they would have been with the penalty. Unsurprisingly, most of the rate filings for 2019 included a rate increase related to the elimination of the penalty. That is now baked into the standard premiums going forward, so the higher rates apply in future years as well.

The individual mandate has long been the least-popular consumer-facing provision of the ACA, although most Americans already had health insurance before the ACA, and didn’t need to worry about the penalty for being uninsured.

It’s worth noting that the elimination of the individual mandate penalty is the crux of the Texas v. US (California v. Texas) lawsuit, which seeks to overturn the entire ACA. The case was heard by the Supreme Court in November 2020, and a ruling is expected in the spring or early summer of 2021.

Uninsured tax filers were more likely to get an exemption than a penalty

Although there were still 33 million uninsured people in the US in 2014, the IRS reported that just 7.9 million tax filers were subject to the penalty in 2014 (out of more than 138 million returns). According to IRS data, 12 million filers qualified for an exemption.

The number of filers subject to the ACA’s penalty was lower for 2015 (on returns that were filed in 2016), as overall enrollment in health insurance plans had continued to grow. The IRS reported in January 2017 that 6.5 million 2015 tax returns had included individual shared responsibility payments. But far more people—12.7 million tax filers—claimed an exemption for the 2015 tax year. For 2016, the IRS reported that 10.7 tax filers had claimed exemptions by April 27, 2017, and that only 4 million 2016 tax returns had included a penalty at that point.

A full list of exemptions and how to claim them is available here, including a summary of how the Trump administration made it easier for people to claim hardship exemptions (hardship exemptions continue to be important in 2019 and beyond, as they’re necessary for people age 30 and older to be able to purchase catastrophic health insurance plans).

Most Americans weren’t affected by the penalty

As noted above, only 4 million tax returns for 2016 included the ACA’s individual mandate penalty (as of late April, 2017; people who got a tax filing extension hadn’t yet filed by that point, so the total number of filers who owed a penalty likely ended up higher than 4 million). The vast majority of tax filers had health insurance, and even among those who didn’t, penalty exemptions were more common than penalty assessments.

Most Americans already get health insurance either from an employer or from the government (Medicaid, Medicare, VA); they didn’t need to worry about the penalty because employer-sponsored and government-sponsored health insurance count as minimum essential coverage.

Individual market major medical plans available on or off-exchange are considered minimum essential coverage, and so are grandfathered plans and grandmothered plans. And although health care sharing ministries are not considered minimum essential coverage, people with sharing ministry coverage were eligible for one of the exemptions under the ACA.

Plans that aren’t considered major medical coverage are not subject to the ACA’s regulations, and do not count as minimum essential coverage, meaning people were subject to the penalty if they relied on something like a short-term plan and were not otherwise exempt from the Obamacare penalty. Things like accident supplements and prescription discount plans may be beneficial, but they do not fulfill the requirement to maintain health insurance.

How big were the penalties?

The IRS reported that for tax filers subject to the penalty in 2014, the average penalty amount was around $210. That increased substantially for 2015, when the average penalty was around $470. The IRS published preliminary data showing penalty amounts on 2016 tax returns filed by March 2, 2017. At that point, 1.8 million returns had been filed that included a penalty, and the total penalty amount was $1.2 billion — an average of about $667 per filer who owed a penalty.

Although the average penalties are in the hundreds of dollars, the ACA’s individual mandate penalty is a progressive tax: if a family earning $500,000 decided not to join the rest of us in the insurance pool, they would have owed a penalty of more than $16,000 for 2018. But to be clear, the vast majority of very high-income families do have health insurance.

Today, the median net family income in the United States is roughly $56,500 (half of U.S. families earn less; half earn more.) For 2018, the penalty for a middle-income family of four earning $60,000 was $2,085 (the flat-rate penalty would have been used, because it was larger than the percentage of income penalty; see details below, under “how the penalty works”). This is far less than the penalty a more affluent family would have paid based on a percentage of their income.

The penalty could never exceed the national average cost for a bronze plan, though. The penalty caps are readjusted annually to reflect changes in the average cost of a bronze plan:

The IRS announced in Revenue Procedure 2015-15 that the maximum 2015 penalty was $2,484 for a single individual and $12,420 for a family of five or more (both slightly higher than the maximum penalty amounts for 2014).
For 2016, Revenue Procedure 2016-43 increased the maximum penalty to $2,676 for a single individual, and $13,380 for a family of five or more, if they were uninsured in 2016.
For 2017, Revenue Procedure 2017-48 increased the maximum penalty to $3,264 for a single individual, and $16,320 for a family of five or more. The significant rate increases that we saw for 2017 (roughly 25 percent) mean that the average bronze plan was quite a bit more expensive in 2017 than it was in 2016. And that means that the maximum penalty was also quite a bit higher.
Rates increased considerably again for 2018, although the bulk of the rate increase was on silver plans (due to the elimination of federal reimbursement for cost-sharing reductions). According to Revenue Procedure 2018-43, the national average cost of a bronze plan increased to $3,396 in 2018 for a single individual and $16,980 for a family of five or more. This is the last year that the IRS had to calculate the national average cost of a bronze plan, since the federal individual mandate penalty no longer applies as of 2019. But as noted above, several states have or are implementing individual mandates with maximum penalties based on the average local cost of a bronze plan.

The maximum penalties rarely applied to very many people, since most wealthy households were already insured.

No longer a question on federal tax return about health coverage (but it’s still on some state returns, and Form 8962 is still applicable if you get a premium subsidy)

From 2014 through 2018, the federal Form 1040 included a line where filers had to indicate whether they had health insurance for the full year (see the upper right corner, under the spaces for Social Security numbers).

But since 2019, Form 1040 has no longer included that question, as there’s no longer a penalty for being without coverage.

But state tax returns for DC, Massachusetts, New Jersey, California, and Rhode Island do include a question about health coverage. Maryland’s tax return also asks about health insurance coverage, in order to try to connect uninsured residents with affordable coverage. Colorado’s tax return will have a similar feature as of early 2022 (but Maryland and Colorado do not penalize residents who don’t have health insurance).

In addition, nothing has changed about premium subsidy reconciliation on the federal tax return. People who receive a premium subsidy (or those who enroll through the exchange in a full-price plan but want to claim the subsidy at tax time) will continue to use Form 8962 to reconcile their subsidy. Exchanges, insurers, and employers will continue to use Forms 1095-A, B, and C to report coverage details to enrollees and the IRS.

health-reform-penalty

How the penalty worked

[Note that in most cases, the states that are implementing their own individual mandates are following this same basic outline in terms of how the penalty works, with the details based on the federal penalty levels that applied in 2018.] Your individual mandate tax is the greater of either 1) a flat-dollar amount based on the number of uninsured people in your household; or 2) a percentage of your income (up to the national average cost of a Bronze plan , as determined by the IRS and adjusted annually to reflect changes in premiums).

This means wealthier households will wind up using the second formula, and may be impacted by the upper cap on the penalty. For example: for 2017, an individual earning less than $37,000 would pay just $695 (flat-dollar calculation) while an individual earning $200,000 would pay a penalty equal to the national average cost of a bronze plan ($3,396 for 2018). This is because 2.5% of his income above the tax filing threshold would work out to about $4,740, which is higher than the national average cost of a bronze plan. The IRS publishes the national average cost of a bronze plan in August each year; that amount is used to calculate penalty amounts when returns are filed the following year.

1) Flat-dollar amount

In 2014, the flat-dollar penalty was $95 per uncovered adult (it climbed to $325 in 2015, and $695 in 2016) plus half that amount for each uninsured child under age 18. Your total household penalty is capped at three times the adult rate, no matter how many children you have.

In 2014, that was $285 ($975 in 2015, and $2085 in 2016). Starting in 2017, the flat-rate penalty is subject to annual adjustment for inflation. But for 2017, the IRS confirmed that there was no inflation adjustment, so the flat-rate penalty continued to be $695 per adult in 2017, with a maximum of $2,085 per family. And for 2018, that was once again the case, as the IRS confirmed that the flat rate penalty would remain unchanged in 2018. After 2018, there is no longer be a penalty imposed by the IRS, although New Jersey, Massachusetts, and DC now impose their own penalties; California and Rhode Island will join them in 2020.

2) Percentage of income

In 2014, the penalty was 1 percent. It rose to 2 percent in 2015, and to 2.5 percent for 2016 and beyond.

The penalty is capped at the average cost of a Bronze plan, which for 2018 was $3,396 for an individual and $16,980 for a family of five or more (those maximum amounts are prorated monthly for tax filers who were uninsured for only part of the year). The percentage of income penalty is calculated based on the household’s income above the tax filing threshold.

For most people, “household income” is simply adjusted gross income from Form 1040. But if you have non-taxable Social Security benefits, tax-exempt interest, or foreign earned income and housing expenses for Americans living abroad, you’ll need to add those amount to your AGI from your 1040. Be sure to include income from any dependents who are required to file a tax return.

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How to keep your health insurance when you move to another state

January 11, 2021/in Affordable Care Act, consumer protections, guaranteed issue, health plan enrollment, pcip, portability, pre-existing condition insurance plan, risk pools /by wpmaddoxins

How do I obtain new coverage when I move to a new state?
If you’ll have an unavoidable gap in coverage, a short-term plan might be a good option to bridge the gap.
How will my health insurance provider network change when I move to a new state?

Since individual market coverage is regulated and marketed at the state level, a new plan is needed when you move from one state to another. But prior to 2014, health insurance was often an obstacle for people who wanted to move to a new state. In all but five states, individual market coverage was medically underwritten, so people with pre-existing conditions often found it difficult, expensive, or impossible to enroll in new coverage if they were going to need to purchase their own plan (as opposed to getting coverage from an employer, Medicare, or Medicaid).

Many states had state-run high-risk pools, and federal pre-existing condition insurance pools (PICP) were implemented in the years leading up to 2014. But high-risk pools could impose waiting periods for new arrivals to the state, and coverage through the risk pools was often prohibitively expensive and generally had benefit caps that weren’t always adequate.

That’s all a thing of the past, thanks to the Affordable Care Act. In every state, health insurance is guaranteed-issue for all applicants during open enrollment and special enrollment periods — and moving to a new state will trigger a special enrollment period as long as you already had coverage before your move. And the price is the same regardless of whether you have pre-existing conditions. Premiums can vary based on age, zip code, and tobacco use, so you might find that coverage in your new area is priced differently. But if you’re eligible for premium subsidies, the subsidy amount will adjust to reflect the cost of the benchmark plan in your new area.

How do I get new health insurance coverage when I move to a different state?

If you work for a large employer that has business locations throughout the country, you may find that your coverage remains unchanged with your move. But if you buy your health insurance in the individual market, you’ll have to purchase a new plan.

Individual market coverage is guaranteed-issue thanks to Obamacare, but it’s only available for purchase during open enrollment, and during special enrollment periods triggered by qualifying events. Moving to an area where different health plans are available (which includes moving to a new state) is a qualifying event, as long as you already had coverage in your prior location. (This prior coverage requirement took effect in July 2016.)

So you cannot move to a new state in order to take advantage of a special enrollment period if you were uninsured prior to the move. But as long as you had coverage before the move, you’ll have a 60-day enrollment window during which you can pick a new plan – in the exchange or off-exchange – in your new state.

It’s optional for exchanges to allow access to special enrollment periods in advance of a move (as opposed to only after the move has occurred), but there’s no requirement that exchanges offer this feature. So your enrollment period likely won’t begin until the day you move, and the earliest effective date you’ll be eligible for will be the first of the following month. (Normal effective date rules are followed in this case, which means that in most states, you need to enroll by the 15th of the month in order to have coverage effective the first of the following month; this requirement will no longer be used by HealthCare.gov as of 2022, when they will simply allow coverage to be effective the first of the month after you enroll, regardless of the date you enroll.)

That means you may end up having a gap in coverage, depending on the date you move and how far into your 60-day enrollment period you are when you select a new plan in your new state. You’ll want to find out how your current health insurance plan works in your new state; you may only have coverage for emergencies once you leave the state in which your policy was issued.

If you’re concerned about the possibility of having a gap in coverage, you could enroll in a short-term plan to cover you until your new plan takes effect. Short-term plans are not regulated by the ACA, and they don’t count as minimum essential coverage. But they’re specifically designed to cover short gaps in coverage, and they’re perfect for a situation in which your new plan will be taking effect within a few weeks and you only need “just in case” coverage in the meantime.

A short-term plan can have an effective date as early as the day after you apply, and short-term plans are available in nearly every state. Be aware, however, that they generally don’t cover any pre-existing conditions, and they can also reject your application if you have significant pre-existing medical conditions.

How will my health insurance provider network change when I move to a new state?

Particularly in the individual market, health insurers have been moving towards HMOs and narrower networks. So it’s becoming rare for plans to offer network coverage in multiple states. Be prepared for the fact that you will almost certainly have a new provider network with your new plan.

It’s also important to note that even if your health insurer is a big-name carrier that offers plans throughout the country, it will have different individual market plans in each state. So although you might have a Cigna plan already, and Cigna might also be available in the individual market in the state where you’re moving, you’ll need to re-enroll in the new plan once you move.

And although Blue Cross Blue Shield is a household name in the health insurance market, their coverage varies from state to state. The Blue Cross Blue Shield name is licensed by 36 different health insurance carriers across the country; a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in one state is not the same as a Blue Cross Blue Shield plan in another state.

Additional resources

You can also browse our extensive collection of state health insurance resources, and details about the health insurance exchanges in each state. If your income doesn’t exceed 138 percent of the poverty level (or even higher, if you’re pregnant or looking for coverage for your children), you’ll want to pay attention to the details about how each state’s Medicaid program works and what you need to know about switching to a new state’s Medicaid program.

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