Federal health care tax credits going unclaimed

"Federal healthcare benefits are going unclaimed by an estimated 17,000 Californians whose jobs were moved overseas or retirees whose pensions are being paid by the government after their former employers terminated their retirement plans," the Los Angeles Times reports."

"So far, less than a third of those in the state who could be eligible are getting the money that can pay as much as 80% of their healthcare costs." The federal government has launched a major effort "to find people who are eligible. The Internal Revenue Service, which is in charge of finding eligible recipients, will hold a series of meetings in states with low participation, including California, Georgia and New York." In the past, however, efforts to promote the program "have had little success. ... Across the U.S., about 23,000 out of an estimated 100,000 potentially eligible people are receiving the credit, said Shannon Norman, an IRS spokeswoman" (Olivarez-Giles, 2/12).

 

---

This article was reprinted from khn.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.