Central San Joaquin Valley residents rush to beat April 15 health insurance deadline
By Barbara Anderson, The Fresno Bee | |
McClatchy-Tribune Information Services |
Enrollment counselors at nine
Covered
People have until
Only hours remain before the deadline to enroll in health insurance plans to avoid a tax penalty this year.
Health insurance counselors in the central
But there were no long lines Monday outside enrollment centers -- a far cry from the scene two weeks ago when people rushed to meet a
"This is nothing like
For enrollment help, visit www.coveredca.com and click on "Find Help Near You."
At
People do fear the tax penalty, Lopez said.
In 2014, the annual penalty is
By the
Through
It's not known how many people have enrolled since
People have waited to the last minute to enroll out of "general confusion," said
Others have tried to meet deadlines with no success online.
The online enrollment system kicked out her application when she tried to make a change in her income last month. A licensed vocational nurse, Wright had been on disability income for a work-related knee injury but the disability expired. She couldn't get through to Covered California by telephone to make the income change until Thursday, she said, and then she was told to go to an enrollment counselor.
Wright doesn't want to be without health insurance. "I need it," she said, rubbing her knee. "I had employer-based insurance, but I lost that."
In December she lost her employer-sponsored insurance when she was laid off her sales job. In February, she enrolled in a
In March she found out she had uterine cancer, and on
"I was told it was caught in time," she said. "I have a new lease on life."
She would have enrolled in a health plan in January, she said, "but I'm not a computer person."
She found help at the Kaiser retail store in
The reporter can be reached at (559) 441-6310, [email protected] or @beehealthwriter on Twitter.
___
(c)2014 The Fresno Bee (Fresno, Calif.)
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