Mitch Perry
The clock is ticking today, and not just for guys who have yet to buy anything for their better halfs for Valentine’s Day.
“If you were to ask me what would be the best Valentine that you could give to your loved one, I would tell you today to get them signed up, ” said Tampa Mayor Bob Buckhorn, part of a group of local officials who gathered on the Hillsborough Community College’s Ybor City campus Saturday morning to highlight the fact that the deadline for citizens to sign up for the Affordable Care Act expires Sunday night at midnight. “What greater gift could you give to a spouse, a family member, than to encourage them to sign up for health care?” Buckhorn said.
HCCC-Ybor was one of a number of facilities in the Tampa Bay area that will be open this weekend with navigators present to help people get signed up for the ACA.(To find out where those sites are located, you can go to CoveringTampaBay.org).
Florida leads the nation in the number of people signing up for health insurance under the ACA, with more than 1.3 million Floridians – roughly 6.5 percent of the state’s population — signing up for 2015 health coverage on the federal exchange marketplace as of Jan. 30, data released by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services showed. “Now part of that points out how big the problem is in Florida,” the mayor acknowledged. “But with the unwillingness of the Florida Legislature to consider Medicaid expansion, there is a gap there as well.”
Tampa area Congresswoman Kathy Castor also used the occasion to once again prod the Legislature to consider Medicaid expansion when they begin the legislative session next month. “Florida’s leaving $50 billion on the table by not expanding Medicaid like other states have done, ” she said. “So I hope they can send us a Valentine this year too, and take care of all the families, and all of the hardworking students, and all of our neighbors to ensure that we bring our tax dollars home and people stay healthy well.”
Although the ACA has been controversial since its inception, Castor and Buckhorn have been unflagging champions of what is considered President Obama’s signature domestic achievement in office. Buckhorn opened recreation centers for navigators to provide information and sign citizens up for health care plans. He also had his had fire and rescue personnel distribute ACA literature, and also reached out to the hospitality industry and the city’s part-time employees to get them to look into signing up. “We are, as we said a year and a half ago, all in,” he said Saturday. “And I think we have made a tangible difference.”
Castor has made health care a priority since being elected to Congress in 2006, and her work was noted today by Katherine Archuleta, Director of the U.S. Office Personnel Management, who flew in from Washington to be part of the last hour call. “The Affordable Care Act couldn’t be where it is without the great work of Congresswoman Castor, she said. “Her leadership throughout its development and its passage was known by everyone.”
Ninety-three percent of Floridians who have bought health coverage on the exchange to date have received tax credits for monthly premiums, the most recent federal analysis shows. Among those is HCC student Lizzie Jimenez, who said she is only paying $50 a month after recently getting signed up for the ACA. “I got dental, I got vision, and I was able to have my yearly checkups. Any concern I had I was able to go to my doctor…”
Left unsaid by officials today was the fact that if citizens continue to go without health insurance, they’re going to have to pay a penalty when they file their tax returns in the coming weeks or months.
For 2014, the flat amount is $95 per adult and half that for children under 18, with a cap of $285 per family. The flat penalty rises steeply in the future, to $325 per adult in 2015 and $695 in 2016, plus half that per child, up to a maximum of $975 in 2015 and $2,085 in 2016.
