A Tennessee couple’s Obamacare health coverage was unexpectedly cancelled after federal officials told them they would have to pay a larger amount of subsidies, WREG Tennessee reports.
Joseph Ballard told WREG that he purchased health insurance with taxpayer subsidies last year through HealthCare.gov when his and his wife’s premiums skyrocketed. But when Ballard’s wife began a part-time job, the amount of premium subsidies they were eligible for sank.
Ballard was contacted by HealthCare.gov officials and informed that the family would simply have to pay more each month, but he was taken by surprise when his insurance was actually cancelled.
“When they turned around and they did the adjustment, they didn’t tell me that they were going to cancel the insurance. All they told me was that we were going to have to pay the difference,” Ballard said.
After contacting federal officials, the Ballards’ health insurance was reinstated, but he told WREG that the family wasn’t covered for two weeks. Federal Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services officials denied that this was the case.
“Rather than the plan being updated, it was terminated then reinstated with the update once the issue was discovered. We do not believe these consumers experienced any gap in coverage because of this, and we are continually working to enhance this process,” CMS spokesman Aaron Albright wrote in an email.
The Obama administration is chasing down over 360,000 HealthCare.gov customers who are receiving the wrong amount of taxpayer subsidies. Any customers who have incorrect income information or have undergone a life change that changes their income must immediately report the change to their Obamacare exchange or risk owing the IRS for overpaid subsidies come tax season. (RELATED: Admin May Cut Off Obamacare Subsidies For 360,000)
“It’s a great program, but there’s a lot of still bugs that need to be taken out of the program to make it a lot easier for the people to understand it,” Ballard concluded.