Retired and Just Enrolled in ACA .. $0 Premium. Question.

[cyber888]

So, I just enrolled in ACA Healthcare.gov and choose Aetna insurance. Premium is $0.00.
It's asking me to pay. And when I try to put my credit card and complete the 0.00 payment, it says it cannot be less than $0.01.
Should I just wait for instructions from the Insurance company.

Anyone experience this?

 

[fh2000]

I am on Medicare. DW is on ACA also with $0 premium. We just sign up with autopay on the Health Insurance portal before the first payment due. That seems to work with no hassles for us.

 

[FiveDriver]

You probably should call Aetna Customer Service to make sure you've got the coverage.

You are aware of the Income Limits to get the Premium Advances, right?? Come time to file Income Tax, if you go over the MAGI Income Limit.......you will owe them big time.

 

[GenXguy]

You are aware of the Income Limits to get the Premium Advances, right?? Come time to file Income Tax, if you go over the MAGI Income Limit.......you will owe them big time.

Good point. I unexpectedly found myself retired just less than half way through this year, but when I check healthcare.gov, the lowest price Bronze plan is over $420/mo for me. That's based on a single person household with about $100K of taxable income estimated for 2023 after maxing out my 457B to reduce my AGI by $30,000.

It's better for me to stick with COBRA at least through the end of the year, especially since it will be subsidized in part for a while, along with a much lower deductible, which I've already paid against.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

Over my 5 years on the ACA, I've had issues twice making that first payment. One was with the Federal exchange and one after Pennsylvania set up their own exchange. There is supposedly an electronic handoff from the exchange sites over to the insurance company to capture that first payment AND send payment confirmation data back to the exchange, but it does indeed seem that they don't always cover every situation. I would contact BOTH the exchange and Aetna to make sure things are covered properly on both sides. The health insurance company call centers may not see the signup transaction for a day or two, in my experience.

You want to make sure the exchange ultimately shows your first payment as made. Otherwise, they may not activate coverage on the start date. And if you let that go unnoticed, you could eventually pass the window in which you can start coverage.

And you want Aetna to know as well so that they can send you your ID card and such and also verify that they have you as a customer.

I would wait no more than a couple days before calling about it.

 

[xlf11]

Another easy solution is to jack up your estimated income by a small amount without bumping into higher premium/plan so you have a small monthly pay into the insurance plan. We had a monthly charge of a few $ autopay setup on the insurance company website to take care of that when in ACA for a few years, easy to manage and all got reconciled during the tax time anyway. No issue what's so ever.

 

[RetiredAndLovingIt]

It seems to me the first year I signed up it would not let me pay and I had to wait for approval from the insurance company or something. If you have an option to skip payment and continue, try that and if you've done everything correctly, you should start getting e-mails and letters in the mail from both the insurance company and healthcare.gov. If nothing in a couple of days call them. I'm assuming coverage is to start next month so you have some time or are you trying to backdate to the beginning of this month?

 

[aaronc879]

First I would make sure you qualify for the zero premium. There is a pretty narrow income range to get that zero premium. If you make more you will have to pay back the premium that you weren't supposed to get and if you make less than the minimum then you need to go on Medicaid or your state's equivalent which is what I did this year. If you really qualify for a zero premium then you don't need to make a payment. I had zero premium for a couple years and did nothing as far as making a payment. You don't have to make a zero dollar payment, you just do nothing.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

First I would make sure you qualify for the zero premium. There is a pretty narrow income range to get that zero premium. If you make more you will have to pay back the premium that you weren't supposed to get and if you make less than the minimum then you need to go on Medicaid or your state's equivalent which is what I did this year. If you really qualify for a zero premium then you don't need to make a payment. I had zero premium for a couple years and did nothing as far as making a payment. You don't have to make a zero dollar payment, you just do nothing.

Doing nothing is easier said than done in some cases. When I ran into the issue with the sites, the first payment was an integral part of the overall application completion and submission process. My application wasn't flagged as "Complete" because the first payment did not go thru. The OP could be facing a similar situation if the system is not set up to capture a $0 payment. In my case if I would have done nothing, my application for healthcare was not going to be submitted. This first happened 5 years ago and again about 3 years ago. So maybe they have fixed this issue.

 

[cyber888]

Yes, of course, pretty much aware of the income. I already stated income of $62,000 before I can even enroll in this. They have to approve the income first before I enroll. You cannot enroll without the estimated income declaration.
Pretty much aware that if you go over $75K - $77K, there's no subsidy. My subsidy is $1630, and the insurance is cheaper than that, hence the $0.00

You probably should call Aetna Customer Service to make sure you've got the coverage.

You are aware of the Income Limits to get the Premium Advances, right?? Come time to file Income Tax, if you go over the MAGI Income Limit.......you will owe them big time.

 

[Dtail]

Yes, of course, pretty much aware of the income. I already stated income of $62,000 before I can even enroll in this. They have to approve the income first before I enroll. You cannot enroll without the estimated income declaration.
Pretty much aware that if you go over $75K - $77K, there's no subsidy. My subsidy is $1630, and the insurance is cheaper than that, hence the $0.00

Pretty good.
I have been managing my MAGI income for ACA purposes and it is unusual to see a 0 premium after the subsidy when one has income of 62k.

 

[aaronc879]

Pretty good.
I have been managing my MAGI income for ACA purposes and it is unusual to see a 0 premium after the subsidy when one has income of 62k.

If you have a MAGI of $62K then the premium will not be zero. Not even for a couple. Something is not right here.

 

[GenXguy]

Yes, of course, pretty much aware of the income. I already stated income of $62,000 before I can even enroll in this. They have to approve the income first before I enroll. You cannot enroll without the estimated income declaration.
Pretty much aware that if you go over $75K - $77K, there's no subsidy. My subsidy is $1630, and the insurance is cheaper than that, hence the $0.00

When I put in my income as $62,000 as a test, it said my subsidy was only $735. And lowest premium I could get was $178.

I had to add a non-existent spouse (so ages 55 and 56) to get the subsidy up over $1900, and then the lowest premium was $2 and change. And the deductible was over $17,000 with out of pocket over $18,000!

 

[Dtail]

When I put in my income as $62,000 as a test, it said my subsidy was only $735. And lowest premium I could get was $178.

I had to add a non-existent spouse to get the subsidy up over $1900, and then the lowest premium was $2 and change.

Lowest for me at 62k income at 63 y.o. after subsidy was 195 monthly.

 

[GenXguy]

Lowest for me at 62k income at 63 y.o. after subsidy was 195 monthly.

Just you? 1 in household?

Edit: When I selected ages of 63 and 62 for myself and non-existent spouse, the subsidy went up, but so did lowest premium to $3 and change.

 

[cathy63]

If you have a MAGI of $62K then the premium will not be zero. Not even for a couple. Something is not right here.

Just you? 1 in household?

Edit: When I selected ages of 63 and 62 for myself and non-existent spouse, the subsidy went up, but so did lowest premium to $3 and change.

Subsidies vary by region. Are you using a zip code from NC (where cyber888's profile says he/she lives)?

 

[GenXguy]

Subsidies vary by region. Are you using a zip code from NC (where cyber888's profile says he/she lives)?

So do premiums. And age makes a difference. I don't know cyber's age or household size, so I was using some different ages for test purposes. Besides, only a few dollars is close to $0. The reason my premium would be so much higher is due to single person with $100,000 MAGI despite retiring in June with a maxed out 457B. Oh well, COBRA will do for this year, and I should get a better subsidy next year.

 

[Aerides]

So, I just enrolled in ACA Healthcare.gov and choose Aetna insurance. Premium is $0.00.
It's asking me to pay. And when I try to put my credit card and complete the 0.00 payment, it says it cannot be less than $0.01.
Should I just wait for instructions from the Insurance company.

Anyone experience this?

I didn't pay through healthcare.gov and waited for the insurance to contact me to set things up.

Odd that you got a zero premium though since you were working half the year - it's based on annual income, not just income after you start.

 

[N02L84ER]

Even though your subsidy is $1630, you are not required to apply the entire subsidy. You are allowed to enter any value between $0 and $1630 to be applied to the premium. I have used a smaller than maximum allowed subsidy in previous years when my subsidy was larger than the lowest bronze premium.

 

[jim584672]

I just want to add a special note, if all your income happens in the front of the year but the remaining months are low income, Medicaid is monthly based so the early months do not count against you.

 

[Dtail]

Just you? 1 in household?

Edit: When I selected ages of 63 and 62 for myself and non-existent spouse, the subsidy went up, but so did lowest premium to $3 and change.

Just me but in my zip code and referring to another post, yes realize the differences could be large by zip code.

 

[RunningBum]

If you have a MAGI of $62K then the premium will not be zero. Not even for a couple. Something is not right here.

A $1630 subsidy at $62K but $0 subsidy at $75K-$77K? Nope. Not since the subsidy cliff went away. Something definitely isn't right.

 

[cyber888]

A $1630 subsidy at $62K but $0 subsidy at $75K-$77K? Nope. Not since the subsidy cliff went away. Something definitely isn't right.

It is correct. I did not talk about hitting the cliff, because I never reach it. I mentioned it because I just aware of it being around $75 - $77K. I'm aware it's not a cliff until 2024

Yeah well, the subsidy is really that. I pay 0. And after re-checking, the subsidy is $1695 (not $1630), so bigger

 

[cyber888]

Just me but in my zip code and referring to another post, yes realize the differences could be large by zip code.

Yes, it is my zipcode. I guess we're cheap. In my Eligibility document that has been approved, it is clearly written that my estimated salary is $62K for 2023.
And I have a subsidy of $1695 (which I thought was $1630). Premium is $1534. So, I recalculated and even at $68K salary, I still pay $0.00.
By the way, this is for me and DW.

I'm attaching screenshot so you guys can see. I was able to reach Aetna yesterday, and they said I do not have to input my card or pay anything at $0.00.

 

[PaunchyPirate]

In my Pennsylvania zip code, a husband and wife, age 60 with an income of $62,000, would qualify for $1808 per month in subsidy. That resolves to 7 plans with $0 monthly premium -- one of which is a Gold HSA plan. Another plan would have a $3.45 premium.

It's possible.