If you don’t have health insurance and haven’t tried to sign up for it by midnight Monday, you will face a fine of $95 or 1% of your annual household income — whichever amount is more — when calculating your 2014 taxes.
Monday is the deadline to enroll in New York State of Health, the state marketplace for health insurance, although state officials say those who have completed applications but haven’t been able to complete enrollment by 11:59 p.m. Monday will continue to receive assistance.
To date, 812,033 New Yorkers have enrolled for coverage in the marketplace since the launch of nystateofhealth.ny.gov on Oct. 1, 2013. Another 350,762 New Yorkers have completed applications but not yet chosen a plan. About 70% of new enrollees were uninsured at the time they applied and earlier breakdowns showed that more than half of the people who enrolled in New York state were enrolled in Medicaid, according to state officials.
“We’re thrilled that more than 812,000 New Yorkers have enrolled for quality, low-cost insurance on the Marketplace,” said Donna Frescatore, executive director of New York State of Health in a statement. With the deadline looming, “activity on the site is about as high as we’ve experienced yet,” Frescatores added.
People who do not sign up by the end of Monday will not be able to apply again until enrollment resumes in Nov. 15 for coverage beginning Jan. 1, 2015, unless they experience a “qualifying event” such as getting married or divorced, losing employer-provided health insurance, gaining a dependent or moving to New York state.
