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Sun Life in San Manuel can help you navigate the health insurance ‘marketplace’.
CASA GRANDE – Are you still uninsured? Have you been dragging your feet in purchasing federally-mandated insurance through the “marketplace,” because you don’t understand how?
Sun Life Family Health Center can help, but your window of opportunity is swiftly closing. The initial open enrollment period for health coverage through the Marketplace for 2014 began on Oct. 1, 2013, and ends on Monday, March 31, 2014.
Sun Life has full-time Certified Application Counselors (CACs) staffed at each of its Pinal County locations in Casa Grande, Coolidge, Maricopa, Eloy, and San Manuel. CACs can help you navigate the Marketplace, discuss options, and assist you in your application process for coverage and potential tax credits. These services are absolutely free, and open to anyone.
You may submit a Marketplace application at any time during the year with a counselor’s help at Sun Life; but if you miss the March 31 deadline for 2014, you will not be able to enroll for insurance until the next specified enrollment period starting in October.
After the close date on March 31, marketplace insurance enrollment for 2014 will only be available to the general public during special periods. Those periods pertain to any of the following changes of situation:
• Loss of minimum essential coverage
• Termination of job-based coverage
• Change in job-based coverage (e.g., if it doesn’t meet minimum essential coverage standards)
• Marriage, divorce, birth, pregnancy, or adoption
• Change in income
• Enrollment error
• Change in citizenship (e.g., acquiring citizenship status) or qualifying immigration status
• Violation of a contract by a health plan
• Gain or loss of eligibility for premium tax credits or cost-sharing reductions, or change in level of cost-sharing reduction if the consumer is already enrolled in a qualified health plan (QHP) through the Marketplace
• Relocation or change in address
• Change in status as an American Indian or Alaska Native
• Occurrence of other exceptional circumstance
For those who are currently uninsured and do not acquire insurance either privately or through the Marketplace for 2014 could face a $95 fee at tax time per adult (or 1 percent of your annual family income, whichever is higher). Some exemptions are allowed.
For insurance coverage in 2015, the annual open enrollment period will begin on Oct. 15, 2014, and then will close on Dec. 7, 2014.
Sun Life’s outreach and enrollment team also assists with enrollment in AHCCCS, Arizona’s Medicaid program, at no cost. Anyone looking to apply for AHCCCS may do so at any time of the year; the program is not dependent on state or federal marketplace insurance eligibility. AHCCCS/Medicaid is a joint federal and state health coverage program for low-income families, children, pregnant women, the elderly, consumers with disabilities, and in Arizona, childless adults under the age of 65. People who are eligible for AHCCCS, though, are not eligible for premium tax credits or cost-sharing reductions through the Marketplace.
For more information on getting together with a Sun Life Family Health Center counselor for application and enrollment assistance for 2014 medical coverage through the Marketplace, for AHCCCS, or have questions about exemptions, call your local Sun Life office:
• Casa Grande (520) 381-0394
• Center for Women & Children (520) 381-0369
• Coolidge (520) 350-7554
• Eloy (520) 350-7662
• Maricopa (520) 350-7553
• San Manuel (520) 350-7556
• Apache Junction Opens March 2014
ABOUT SUN LIFE FAMILY HEALTH CENTER
Sun Life Family Health Center is Pinal County’s largest primary care provider, and is one of only two community health centers in the state receiving accreditation from the Joint Commission (the gold standard of quality in healthcare). Sun Life serves both insured and uninsured Pinal County patients, and provides health services in family practice, dentistry, women’s health, pediatrics, diabetes education, and much more.
Sun Life has several area family practice offices, located in Casa Grande, Eloy, Coolidge, Maricopa, Oracle and San Manuel. Its Casa Grande general health facility (located on N. Arizona Road) houses management operations, as well as family dentistry and orthodontics, and provides in-house radiology, pharmacy and laboratory services. The Center for Women & Children on Florence Boulevard in Casa Grande offers women’s wellness and maternity care, as well as pediatric care. The San Manuel Family Practice also offers in-house laboratory, radiology and pharmacy services, as well as behavioral health. Our Eloy location offers family practice and a public pharmacy. San Manuel, Coolidge, Maricopa, and Oracle are all family practice locations, and San Manuel also offers diabetes education and on-site pharmacy.
To learn more about office locations and hours, visit www.sunlifefamilyhealth.org. Sun Life…Excellence in Health Care.
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