Confused About an Email From Healthcare.gov (Insurance Marketplace)

[NateW]

A few days ago I received the email in the screenshot. Have any of you that are purchasing medical insurance through Healthcare.gov/your state's insurance exchange) received this email? At first I thought it was a phishing email because my name is not used and it contains clickable links. What's confusing is it references 2019 tax credits I (may have?) received and not filing IRS Form 8962. This year is the only year I have purchased health insurance through healthcare.gov, thus it is impossible for me to have omitted Form 8962 on a tax return filed for a previous year I received advanced credits for health insurance. And of course I can't file this year's tax return until next year.

I called healthcare.gov about the email and the person I spoke to said it appears it's a legitimate email and possibly I answered "No" to this year's application question asking if healthcare.gov could have permission to access my tax returns to help me figure out my credit. If I answered no it was because I did not need help in estimating my income/credit and my previous year's tax return/income had no bearing on this year's income (I ER'ed in July of 2019 , thus my income was over the qualifying amount). The person I spoke with said don't worry about the email and during this year's open enrollment give healthcare.gov permission to access my tax return information.

Further looking at the bottom of the email seems to indicate that it was a mass broadcast because I agreed to receive email updates.

What are your thoughts about this?

Thanks.

 

[RunningBum]

They give three different reasons why you might have received the letter, one of them being not letting them access your tax records while requesting a subsidy. It doesn't matter that you don't need help estimating, they want to see your tax records. You'll probably wind up having to send an explanation letter why you will have lower income in 2021. They should've sent a more specific letter for each possible reason to avoid confusion. The system isn't perfect, but it's not that hard to make it work. Do as the phone rep says.

That bottom part doesn't mean it's a mass mailing. It just means you allowed them to send emails about your account, which they did.

 

[odie42]

I received the same email. This is our first year for ACA insurance. I logged in to my healthcare.gov account ( not using link on email because I was skeptical) and found that my 2020 application was incomplete. I was just there a week ago and it still showed complete. I had to click through my application and answer some questions about our income that I didn’t remember answering the first time. I was qualified for subsidies and had to choose my plan again.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Odie42’s findings are interesting and worth checking out. Although it’s weird that it was a completed application a year ago to initially get the coverage and subsidy.

There is a similar thread on the Bogleheads forum if you care to check that out.

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=328769

I got the letter last year and all I remember doing was to fill out my new application, where I gave permission to access my tax records.

 

[NateW]

Thank you all for replying and noting I most likely received the email for denying healthcare.gov permission to access my tax file. I vaguely recall the question, but I took the request to see my tax information for the sole purpose of assisting me with what I could do myself and that is why I declined. If the question was clear, and more along the lines of "May we have permission to access your tax file? We need to access your previous year's tax information to verify your credit, otherwise you may not receive a tax credit in the future" or similar wording, I would have given permission. I'm aware that come tax time I will calculate the credit (using Form 8962) I should have gotten based on actual income and either my tax owed decreases/refund increases or my refund decreases/tax owed increases. Earlier this year I completed a second application to report an increase in income (still under the credit cliff limit), lowering my credit and I elected to take about half the credit to make sure I don't owe taxes. Thus, in my mind I'm abiding by the rules and won't end up owinh at tax time, but I guess the insurance marketplace part of the government needs to verify this.

In the next few days during open enrollment I'll make sure I give Healthcare.gov permission to access my tax information.

 

[NateW]

Odie42’s findings are interesting and worth checking out. Although it’s weird that it was a completed application a year ago to initially get the coverage and subsidy.

There is a similar thread on the Bogleheads forum if you care to check that out.

https://www.bogleheads.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=328769

I got the letter last year and all I remember doing was to fill out my new application, where I gave permission to access my tax records.

Thanks, I'll check out the BH thread.

The customer service person I spoke to today said I was ok for this year (don't need to provide a new application) but for open enrollment coming up, I need to carefully review the question asking permission to see tax information and answer accordingly.

When completing this year's application I recall several of the other questions were not worded clearly and the whole application process seems foreign to me, especially submitting a complete new application for a single change (about mid year I reported an anticipated slight increase in my income). I guess having mega corp provided group health insurance for the past 30 years has left me somewhat ill prepared to purchase health insurance on the Exchange.