How To Report Health Insurance to IRS Under Obamacare

This year as you complete your federal income tax return, you’ll need to provide extra information, due to Obamacare.



How To Report Health Insurance to IRS Under Obamacare

Secretary's Column: Getting Covered is Good for Rural America

From USDA:

Posted by Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack, on November 20, 2014 at 1:35 PM

Infographic: Getting covered is good for rural America. (click to enlarge image)

Cross posted from the Huffington Post:

Living in a rural community shouldn’t have to come with a hefty price tag for healthcare. On this National Rural Health Day, we celebrate the fact that thanks to the Affordable Care Act, it no longer has to.

The Affordable Care Act (ACA) is already making a difference in the lives of millions of rural Americans. Prior to the ACA, many rural families had a hard time finding affordable insurance coverage, paying an average of nearly half of their costs out of their own pockets. Many didn’t have access to affordable health insurance through an employer because they were self-employed as farmers, ranchers or rural business owners and entrepreneurs. While those folks take calculated business risks every day, their health should not be one of them.

Today, they can choose from a variety of affordable insurance plans and many will qualify for financial assistance to help them pay for coverage. During the last open enrollment period, which ran through March of 2014, nearly seven out of ten people across the country found coverage for less than a $100 a month. The ACA also forbids insurance companies from discriminating against those with pre-existing conditions and covers preventive care. This is especially beneficial for rural Americans who, on average, suffer from higher rates of chronic conditions like diabetes, heart disease, and high blood pressure than those living in urban areas. The ACA also includes a special rule that requires insurance companies to publically justify premium increases of more than ten percent–which means no more expensive surprises for rural families from year to year.

The Administration has also taken steps to address the underlying challenges to staying healthy in rural America. It has more than doubled the size of the National Health Service Corps, which offers scholarships and loan repayment to health practitioners in return for practicing in rural communities and other underserved areas. More than 3,500 Corps members now serve in rural areas, and an average of 86 percent of them will remain in their communities even after completing their service. These investments help keep a steady stream of young, motivated doctors and nurses in rural America. That’s a good thing because while one in five Americans lives in a rural community, just ten percent of doctors practice there.

The ACA also invests significantly in expanding services at community health centers, where 7.5 million rural Americans get access to primary and preventive care. That comes on top of the more than $3 billion USDA has invested since 2009 to strengthen health infrastructure in rural areas, building rural hospitals and health clinics and expanding access to health care in remote rural areas through telemedicine. Today, we announced an additional $10 million in grants to improve access to health care in rural America.

For many rural Americans, this is the first time in recent memory that they’ve been able to afford health insurance and get comprehensive, regular healthcare.

Take Naomi Rosan, a farmer in rural Georgia, for example. Naomi has suffered from rheumatoid arthritis since high school and hasn’t been able to afford health insurance for many years. Naomi desperately needed surgery to improve her mobility, but couldn’t afford it without health insurance–until the ACA. For the first time in years, Naomi is able to climb on her tractor and put in a day’s work without pain, all thanks to the coverage she received through the ACA.

The Affordable Care Act gives hardworking rural families the financial security and peace of mind they deserve. It makes rural communities stronger and rural families healthier. Find out more at healthcare.gov or 1-800-318-2596 before February 15, 2015–because no one should go without healthcare because of where they live, or be forced to leave the communities they love to get the coverage they need.

Obamacare 2.0 open enrollment kicks off - Nov. 15, 2014

Wow...it seems healthcare.gov actually works this time.

Obamacare 2.0 opened for enrollment early Saturday morning with less fanfare and fewer glitches than a year ago. I was able to easily create an account and saw very few reports online of any problems signing in. Last year, the site crashed almost immediately.

Obamacare 2.0 open enrollment kicks off - Nov. 15, 2014

Second wave of health-insurance disruption affects small businesses - The Washington Post

When millions of health-insurance plans were canceled last fall, the Obama administration tried to be reassuring, saying the terminations affected only the small minority of Americans who bought individual policies.

But according to industry analysts, insurers and state regulators, the disruption will be far greater, potentially affecting millions of people who receive insurance through small employers by the end of 2014.

Second wave of health-insurance disruption affects small businesses - The Washington Post

News Release from Symantec

Experian and Symantec's two-factor credentialing solution selected by Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services

Experian and Symantec continue to gain traction in the public sector

 

Costa Mesa, Calif. and Mountain View, Calif., March 14, 2012 – Experian and Symantec Corp. (NASDAQ: SYMC) today announced the two-factor credentialing solution jointly developed by the companies was selected by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) to provide Enterprise Remote Identity Proofing (ERIP) and Multi-Factor Authentication (MFA) Credential Services in support of the Affordable Health Care Act (ACA). The Experian and Symantec offering will play a critical role in a $78 million contract that was awarded to Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) providing CMS with an offering that helps them solve key challenges that arise in serving the nation’s large uninsured population.

The Experian and Symantec solution combines Experian's identity proofing capabilities with the strong authentication capabilities of Symantec's Validation and ID Protection (VIP) Service to deliver secure online identity credentials. It will minimize the risk of fraud by providing more than 35 million U.S. citizens secure online access to the State and Federal Health Insurance Exchange, while complying with electronic authentication guidelines in the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Special Publication SP 800-63-1 and achieving Level 3 Assurance.

“Experian is thrilled that our solution was selected by CMS and believes it will add great value in helping to provide millions of citizens with access to insurance and medical information, while simultaneously safeguarding individual user’s identities, and complying with federal mandates and regulations.” said Scott Waldron, president of Experian, Government Services. “Our innovative solution with Symantec continues to gain traction with government agencies and healthcare organizations, and this success is another milestone on our path to becoming the de facto standard in the public sector for identity proofing and authentication.”

The offering will utilize Experian’s Precise ID platform, risk-based identity proofing encompassing highly predictive risk assessments through a combination of identity element verification, authentication, risk scoring and progressive out-of-wallet questioning to refine decisions about which identities should be allowed to enter into the CMS system and which identities should be denied access or further verified via alternate processes.

Symantec’s VIP service, the leading cloud-based authentication service, will enable CMS to provide secure online access and transactions to help obtain compliance and reduce fraud risk. A fully hosted strong authentication Security as a Service (SaaS) solution, VIP offers a cost-effective way to give legitimate users access to business resources, enterprise applications and websites while protecting against cybercriminals. VIP provides an additional layer of protection beyond standard username and password by requiring a dynamic one-time use, six digit security code generated by a user’s VIP credential.

“Symantec is very excited about the opportunity to work with the SAIC team to provide our CMS customer with an advanced Symantec-Experian multi-factor authentication and identity proofing joint solution,” said Gigi Schumm, vice president and general manager of Symantec's Public Sector organization. “This capability will enable CMS to successfully roll out the Administration’s National Uninsured program under the Affordable Health Care Act, decrease risk associated with healthcare fraud, and support the realization of NIST’s ‘National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace’.”