After your quote, this is what is needed for your application in Step Two
After getting a quote using our quoting engine and selecting the Covered California plan that fits you, CalHealth will need the following information in Step Two of our process:
- Select your year of coverage. You will have the option to apply for next year starting December 1st.
- Your current zipcode.
- Your estimated total household income for the current year you are applying. Also an estimate for your “Adjusted Gross Income” from Line 11 on a 1040 tax form.
- The number of people in your tax household. This is who you filing taxes with and how many dependents you will claim based on your 1040 tax form.
- The ages of each person in your tax household.
- Selecting who is applying for coverage. A dependent may have coverage by another means.
- Any particular doctor you would like to keep.
- Doctor network preference. Choices are PPO (wide network), EPO (less wide network), and HMO (narrow network).
Some of the information needed above will be passed from our quoting engine to your online application.
Things to consider when applying for Covered California health insurance plans.
First thing to consider
First, consider that there is premium assistance for those who qualify. This is available to everybody through Covered California. This premium assistance is money the federal government pays toward your health insurance premium allowing it to be more affordable. You may qualify for thousands of dollars toward your premium so don’t hesitate to get a quote today. Our online quoting system will calculate the premium assistance and provide an estimate for you.
The catch!
There is a catch… you must estimate your income honestly. At the end of the year, if you underestimated your income putting down less to try and get more premium assistance, the government will make you repay some of the subsidy. If you estimate too high, let’s say $80,000 when you made $60,000, then the government will most likely give you a larger refund because you should have received more premium assistance! If your income is similar year to year, a sufficient estimate for this year is line 11 of your 1040 tax form, which is your adjusted gross income. Remember… it’s just an estimate when using our online quoting system. Feel free to add any cost of living increases you may receive.
You’ll also want to take into consideration whether to even apply for tax credits or to keep the government out of it. You can apply for unsubsidized coverage.
There is also leaving your kids on or trying to get them off of MediCAL which is a common question many of our clients have.
Other things to consider
Some final questions to consider might be:
- How often do I go to the doctor?
- What is my overall health?
- What prescription coverage do I need?
- What style of health coverage do you I need? Do I need PPO (freedom of choice), EPO (broad but exclusive doctor network), or an HMO (a one stop shopping place)?
Finally, consider what premium you want to pay and can afford. This is usually the primary consideration.
What is a physician network?
There are 3 common types of physician networks:
- PPO – Wide network of doctors, coverage for out of network doctors, greater freedom of choice, you can self refer.
- EPO – Works like a PPO only there is no out of network coverage.
- HMO – Narrow network of doctors that coordinate care (specialists, hospitals) for you, takes a lot of the thinking out of it.
What if some of my kids qualify for Medi-Cal?
When you run a quote through Covered California it may come back that the parents qualify for a private plan and the kids qualify for a public sponsored plan through Medi-Cal. For many people this is exactly what they want and it lowers the amount of money the family is paying toward premiums and healthcare. There are also reasons why you may not want to have your kids on Medi-Cal. Your current pediatrician may not take Medi-Cal (and you do not want to switch). You may desire to have everybody on the same plan and in the same health clinic. You may live in a region where there is a scarcity of Medi-Cal clinics. There are ways we can assist you in order to avoid being placed on Medi-Cal.
Free help for people coming off Medi-Cal!
Have you received a letter from Medi-Cal saying that your benefits are ending. we specialize in helping people transition from Medi-Cal to Covered California (they are two different programs). We’ll make sure you are covered the 1st day of the month following the last day of your Medi-Cal coverage with a CoveredCA plan that offers Federal premium help to drastically lower the amount you pay for health coverage every month.
We care about each client! Part of why we do what we do is because health insurance can be extremely confusing. Nearly half of all CoveredCA applicants (including many agents and enrollment counselors) have significant errors associated with their application which can cause problems such as: reduced premium subsidy, huge repayments at the end of the year, delays in enrollment, being forced into MediCAL, or errors in submission. We do not charge any fees to help you and we won’t bug you after we get you enrolled unless you need additional help!