Under the new health care law, otherwise known as Obamacare, most Americans will be required to have health insurance starting in 2014.
So what does that mean to you? If you already have health insurance through your employer, not much will change.
But what if you don’t have insurance? To help pay for the cost of health insurance, you may be eligible for financial assistance from the government, called a subsidy.
A health care subsidy is financial assistance from the government that you could be eligible for to help you pay for health insurance. Your eligibility is generally determined by your household income and family size. To see if you’re eligible for a subsidy, check out this health care calculator.
Quick Tip: Even though the IRS will report your income to exchanges for you, if you used TurboTax to prepare your taxes, you can look up your 2012 income on your tax return by logging into My TurboTax or looking at your saved PDF file.
You can apply for your subsidy when you purchase health insurance through online federal or state health care marketplaces. The name of the online health care marketplaces are different in each state. To look up the name of the Marketplace in your state, click here.
The subsidy will go directly to your health insurance provider when you purchase insurance to lower your monthly health insurance payments or premiums.
Have specific questions about how this impacts you? Ask them below or get health care reform answers in our TurboTax community.
i am 63 single and only get social security of 1195 a month , showing a 13930 net benefit for 2018 I get insurance thru healthmarket place paying 24.00 a month -based on annual total credit of 11208.00,, when I calculate thru turbo tax, turbox tax shows I owe the irs $4.00 . could this be correct I do not get any refund. thanks for letting me know…
Lorrie says:The people telling you the subsidy is free, and if you don’t use it you get it as a refund are WRONG. This is a fact they are not telling people and it is hurting the very people it is suppose to be helping. The truth is what ever you take in subsidy you have to claim as additional income when you file your taxes, and you will pay taxes on it. It happened to me and other people I know. It will take it out of your refund if you have one, if not you will have to pay, what you owe. Figure what they paid for you, and you will have to pay at least 10% of that back if not more. It is a crime that no where does it tell you that on the website. This same thing happened in Florida after the Hurricanes in 2004, the government offered help to pay for repairs, a subsidy, what they didn’t tell people was you had to pay it back when you filed a tax return.
TurboTaxLisa says:Hi Lorrie,
If you estimate your income lower than you actually make when you go to get your subsidy, then you may owe, but many taxpayers saw an additional premium tax credit because their actual income was lower than their estimated. The best way to prevent that is to try and take half of your advanced premium tax credit up front. Also, make sure report changes in income and family size to the Marketplace so they can recalculate your advance premium tax credit. These are tips that appear in many of our health care posts.
Thank you,
Lisa Greene-Lewis
Wondering….can I get BOTH a healthcare subsidy AND the Earned Income Credit? Are either of them lower because I also get the other? I earn about $20k a year and rely on the EIC. I’m right at the Medicaid threshold and trying to make sense of this.
Frank says:Being self-employed, had a $247 a month plan, and I was eligible for a monthly Advance Payment of Premium Tax Credit of almost $200 a month. I elected not to take any, figuring I’d get it back at the end of the year if all of my numbers were correct. I too got goose eggs on Column B for my 1095-A, so I called the Marketplace and was given an SLCSP of $246 to put on each month for Column B that I was enrolled. But I still had $0 for column C. It wasn’t giving me the advance payment tax credit back….at least until I put $1 in each of those columns. Then it gave me it back in spades. From the looks of it, there’s a bug when you didn’t get any subsidy and there are $0’s for Column C. That’s the only thing I can figure, as the numbers are good on examples where I took a monthly $100 Advance Credit Payments.
Frank says:As a followup, it shows that I qualify for $2723 tax credit advance. With me taking $0 throughout the year, I should be receiving that as a refund. I put $1 on one line in column B and it said my refund would increase by $2722. Anything that is listed in column B should be deducted from what you qualify for, but with $0, it just says you don’t get anything back. I’m kind of upset since I paid for the Business version of Turbotax.
Elaine Rusher says:I qualified for a health insurance subsidy in 2014. I am from Oklahoma and am on social security
and a bit of retirement. I owed no income taxes when I ran my turbotax until I put in the info. from
my subsidy(my income was the same as when I qualified for the subsidy). Turbo tax says I have
to repay $1,500 of the subsidy. I am furious and don.t understand why. Please explain
I applied for a credit to help with my insurance costs for 2014. Half way during the year my income dropped so I qualified for Medicaid. Will I have to pay back what I used for the first half of the year? What will happen with the portion I did not have to use? I am afraid that my taxes will be affected and I can’t afford to have all my taxes taken.
TurboTaxLisa says:Hi Kellie,
TurboTax will calculate the amount of premium tax credit you should have received based on what is entered from you Form 1095-A. If you received more tax credit it may reduce the amount of your tax refund or you may owe some, however you may be eligible for additional tax credits and deductions that may offset that amount. With your income level you may be eligible for credits like the Earned Income Tax Credit. TurboTax will walk you through the tax credits and deductions you’re eligble for.
Thank you,
Lisa Greene-Lewis
why is turbo tax saying I need to repay $300 of my subsidy when my income is a negative ? (-$11,000) ?
Jess says:I took the tax credit to help lower my insurance every month . I always get back federal income tax . Since I took the tax credit
Do I still get my
Federal or not Im confused .
so basically when they told u to estimate your household income and you underestimated u get to pay back a lot it taxes
TurboTaxLisa says:Hi Brad,
You may not owe necessarily. You may be eligible for deductions and credits which could help.
Thank you,
Lisa Greene-Lewis
I draw 802.00 soc sec and will be making 619.00 a month gross on an Experience Works program. I got the subsidy for major medical free but had to pay for accidental AND critical for $45.00 a mo. they denied me cancer and heart insurance. what I am wondering tax time I was told soc sec doesn’t count on taxs so with the exp wks program income I wont’ make enough to file taxes. I was told by market place I have to file taxes. Are they going to bill me the 426.00 a mo they are paying for major medical IN 2016 WHEN I file taxes. Rhoda
John Sheley says:I did not buy my plan through the Exchange. I bought it straight from the insurance company. I did not expect to qualify for subsidy. It turns out our income was less than expected and I would have qualified for Premium Tax Subsidy. How can go and recapture that tax credit on my tax return?
John Bowen says:Well, I got my 1095A. Problems.
When I signed up in Dec. 2014 I was told I qualified for $165 monthly assistance, based on my income…I elected to receive $100/month assistance. I ended up paying the full premium myself, because that was the bill that my insurance company sent to me (always was the full amount.)
I figured OK, it would all clear up when I did my taxes, and I’d get the $165 / month subsidy when I did my taxes. But now, my 1095A has $-0- in column B, where they were supposed to put SLCSP value.
It should have been a higher $ amount than what I was paying, listed in column A. But all I got were zeroes.
Now the instructions say that a -0- will be in Column B if you didn’t qualify for subsidy, or if you didn’t pay the premiums(which I did, on both counts).
But I’m still Okay to get my subsidy back as a tax refund (on form 8962 line 11, which would be a negative number after calculations) EXCEPT that the instructions say if you get a negative number to enter Zero.
So anyway, I guess unless my 1095A gets corrected, or the instructions for the 8962 get corrected, I don’t get the subsidy that I was promised. Can anyone help?
I called healthcare.gov number, these people didn’t even know what a 1095A was. I finally got transferred to a supervisor, then again to someone else, who knew a little something, who is sending my complaint on to somebody else…
My son works part-time and it was difficult to determine his hours for the year 2014. He was allowed a subsidy based on his estimated income of $12,000. However, in 2014, he fell short of that and earned 10,900. From what I read, he will have to pay the subsidy back. Will this be the amount he received every month for the whole year? He won’t have the funds to cover that. How will this work?
