THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT

THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT
What Your Health Insurance Agent Wishes You Knew Before You Enroll

The cheapest health insurance plan can become the most expensive mistake you make all year.

Buying health insurance through the ACA Marketplace can look deceptively simple.

Pick a plan.
Check the premium.
Click enroll.

But what happens when you actually need to use that insurance?

What if the doctor you thought was covered isn't in network?

What if your prescription is covered-but costs far more than you expected?

What if that $0 premium plan comes with a deductible you weren't prepared for?

What happens when your income changes after you've received an advance premium tax credit?

And what exactly did you agree to when you clicked Enroll?

In THE AFFORDABLE CARE ACT, licensed health insurance agent and author A.L. Childers takes the confusing language surrounding Marketplace insurance and translates it into the language ordinary people actually use.

No insurance degree required.

Inside, you'll learn how to better understand:

• Premiums, deductibles, copays, coinsurance, and out-of-pocket maximums
• Marketplace subsidies and advance premium tax credits
• Cost-sharing reductions and why the plan you choose matters
• Provider networks and why checking your doctor before enrolling is so important
• Prescription drug coverage and formularies
• Income changes and potential tax-time surprises
• Special Enrollment Periods and qualifying life events
• Automatic renewals and why last year's plan may not be the best choice this year
• Unauthorized plan changes and what consumers should watch for
• The difference between having health insurance and actually understanding how that insurance works

This isn't a political argument about the Affordable Care Act.

It is a consumer guide to living with it.

Because the monthly premium displayed on the screen is only one piece of what healthcare may ultimately cost you.

Because covered does not necessarily mean free.

And because the time to discover how your insurance works is before you're standing at a pharmacy counter, doctor's office, emergency room, or mailbox holding a bill you weren't expecting.

Marketplace rules, plans, costs, subsidies, networks, and individual circumstances can change. This book teaches you what questions to ask, what details to verify, and where expensive misunderstandings can begin-but consumers should always verify current information with the official Marketplace and, when appropriate, a properly licensed and Marketplace-registered health insurance professional or other qualified professional.

Getting health insurance is easy.

But do you actually understand what you just bought?