JACKSONVILLE, Fla. – The third sign-up season for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act is underway, and this year there are some noticeable changes that could affect your wallet.
If you sign up for health care under the Affordable Care Act on Healthcare.gov, you'll see higher premiums, but a sharp increase in fines could sway some fence-sitters who have yet to sign up for coverage.
"People go, 'Oh, I'm healthy. I don't need health insurance.' Well, people get sick all the time, and you never know when you're going to get ill," said Dr. Carolyn McClanahan, a local physician and the founder of Life Planning Partners. "That's the purpose of insurance."
The law's expanded coverage reduced the uninsured rate to a historic low of about 9 percent, so most Americans are covered, but not everyone is on board with the Affordable Care Act.
"The cost of health care was already on the rise and one of the downfalls of the ACA is it didn't do a good job of affecting how much we pay for health care," McClanahan said.
Most people who don't have health insurance are younger people on tight budgets with other priorities for spending their money.
But this upcoming year's penalty for not signing up may serve as motivation to get covered.
This year, the fine is the greater of $325 or 2 percent of income. For 2016, the penalty will rise to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income, whichever is higher.
"Even if you're not for the Affordable Care Act or you don't want to go on a policy through Obamacare, be certain you get coverage, because it's not going to be cheap if you get sick with a serious illness," McClanahan said.
The average nonsubsidized plan on the federal HealthCare.gov exchange was $364 per month in 2015.
That could go up. Florida insurance regulators estimate premiums will rise by an average of 9.5 percent across the state.
"It's become so expensive that people don't want to go to the doctor, and when you have these huge deductibles of $5,000 and $10,000 that you have to pay out of pocket, why even have health insurance?" McClanahan said.
McClanahan said there is a reason the cost is up, but patients can do more to make those costs go down, like use less health care.
"One of the problems with Affordable Care Act and health coverage in general is that it's very expensive," McClanahan said. "We have a problem in this country, because we overuse health care, and we have what's called fee for service, so doctors and hospitals get paid if they do more."
To sign up for health care through the Affordable Care Act, go online to Healthcare.gov.
You have until Jan. 31 to sign up for coverage.
If you want coverage to start by the first of the year, you need to apply by Dec. 15.