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Connecticut, like other states, launched an online health exchange -- Access Health CT -- where residents can shop for and purchase health insurance. There could be new opportunities for the unemployed or uninsured to receive health insurance. Here, we gather our coverage of changes under the new federal law.

Special Enrollment for Affordable Care Act Begins April 1

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Access Health CEO Jim Wadleigh.
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Access Health CEO Jim Wadleigh.

Open enrollment for the Affordable Care Act ended in February. But as WNPR's Jeff Cohen reports, uninsured Connecticut residents who just found out about the financial penalty in the law now have one more month to apply for coverage. 

Let's say you don't have health insurance, and you've just filed your taxes. And, as you did those taxes, you found out that you'll have to pay a federal penalty for not having health insurance in 2014. And now let's say you still don't have insurance, and you don't want to pay a similar, though significantly higher, penalty next year.

Well, April is your lucky month.

The state's health insurance marketplace is holding a special enrollment period from April 1 to midnight on April 30.

Jim Wadleigh, the CEO of Access Health CT, said that to get that insurance, all you have to do is make a couple promises.

"They'll be asked to attest that, when they filed their 2014 tax returns, they paid a tax penalty for not having health insurance in 2014 and attest that they first became aware of or understood the implications of the tax liability after the end of open enrollment, February 2015," he said. 

Wadleigh said the state is following the lead of the federal government. But he also said he's not anticipating a lot of demand in April."We are not aware that we've received one phone call from a customer saying, 'Hey, I'm just realizing I have to pay a penalty and I really want to get insured,'" he said.

Those who sign up for insurance before April 15 can be covered by May 1. They'll still pay a prorated penalty for January, February and March. The annual penalty for 2015 is $325 per adult, or two percent of income, whichever is greater.

Jeff Cohen started in newspapers in 2001 and joined Connecticut Public in 2010, where he worked as a reporter and fill-in host. In 2017, he was named news director. Then, in 2022, he became a senior enterprise reporter.

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