Do I qualify for a subsidy? How do I know how much? What is a tax subsidy? Does my subsidy come now or at the end of the year? If I don’t qualify for a subsidy do I have to go through healthcare.gov or is there a better way?

A subsidy is financial assistance from the government that will help to pay for your health insurance. It’s basically a discount. The payment will go directly to your provider and will help to lower monthly premiums, or you can choose to claim it all at once on your tax return.

If your household modified adjusted gross income is between 100 and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, you may qualify for a tax subsidy. This subsidy calculator (http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/) should give you a good estimate of the amount you would receive. If you don’t qualify for a subsidy you can go directly through the provider instead of healthcare.gov.

Andy Lambert

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