{"id":3978,"date":"2013-06-03T18:44:46","date_gmt":"2013-06-03T23:44:46","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/?p=3978"},"modified":"2013-06-03T18:44:46","modified_gmt":"2013-06-03T23:44:46","slug":"affordable-care-act-minimum-essential-coverage","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/2013\/06\/affordable-care-act-minimum-essential-coverage\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable Care Act &#8211; Minimum Essential Coverage"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/bigstock_Health_Care_Reform_8141064.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignleft size-medium wp-image-3244\" title=\"Health Care Reform\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/bigstock_Health_Care_Reform_8141064-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/bigstock_Health_Care_Reform_8141064-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2010\/07\/bigstock_Health_Care_Reform_8141064.jpg 900w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \><\/a>Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act includes a mandate for most individuals to have <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\" target=\"_blank\">health insurance<\/a> or potentially pay a penalty for noncompliance. Individuals will be required to maintain minimum essential coverage for themselves and their dependents. Some individuals will be exempt from the mandate or the penalty, while others may be given financial assistance to help them pay for the cost of health insurance.<\/p>\n<p>What type of coverage satisfies the individual mandate?<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMinimum essential coverage\u201d<\/p>\n<p>What is minimum essential coverage?<\/p>\n<p>Minimum essential coverage is defined as:<br \>\n\u2022Coverage under certain government-sponsored plans<br \>\n\u2022Employer-sponsored plans, with respect to any employee<br \>\n\u2022Plans in the individual market,<br \>\n\u2022Grandfathered health plans; and<br \>\n\u2022Any other health benefits coverage, such as a state health benefits risk pool, as<br \>\nrecognized by the HHS Secretary.<\/p>\n<p>Minimum essential coverage does not include <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\" target=\"_blank\">health insurance <\/a>coverage consisting of excepted<br \>\nbenefits, such as dental-only coverage.<\/p>\n<p>For more information on <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">health insurance coverage in North Carolina<\/a>, please visit our website at <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/\">www.nchealthplans.com<\/a> or call our toll free number 888-765-5400 and speak with one of our         professional agents. Our agency provides coverage for health   insurance       in North Carolina through <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Blue Cross Blue Shield of North Carolina (BCBSNC). <\/a>You may qualify for a 15% healthy lifestyle discount if you are in excellent health. Call us for details.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act includes a mandate for most individuals to have health insurance or potentially pay a penalty for noncompliance. Individuals will be required to maintain minimum essential coverage for themselves and their dependents. Some individuals will be exempt from the mandate or the penalty, while others may be given financial [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[525,23,530,38],"class_list":["post-3978","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bcbsnc-insurance","tag-affordable-care-act","tag-bcbsnc","tag-minimum-essential-coverage","tag-nc-health-insurance"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3978"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3987,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3978\/revisions\/3987"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3978"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3978"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nchealthplans.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3978"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}