Connect for Health Colorado Updates

• “Part of the expansion of coverage under the Affordable Care Act includes a carrot – Advance Premium Tax Credits for qualifying families and individuals – and part includes a stick – a penalty for going three or more months without coverage. We emphasized both in recent news media outreach efforts around Colorado. The Denver Post covered it well Thursday in this article and other outlets all over Colorado have as well.
• In Colorado and many other states, this Open Enrollment period has been affected by shifts in premiums for the second lowest cost silver plan.  The Kaiser Family Foundation put together an infographic to illustrate the change in monthly premiums by county, and select cities, from 2014 to 2015 for a 40-year-old person covered by the second-lowest-cost silver “benchmark” plan. We noticed that the largest premium drop was in Summit County, with a 45% decrease. After accounting for tax credits, premiums for a 40-year-old person with an annual income of $30,000 would remain flat in most of the country, as long as the enrollee changed from the 2014 benchmark plan to the plan designated as the benchmark for 2015. Check it out.” [Source: Connect for Health Colorado]