IRS helping thousands pay for health insurance

The IRS is helping more than 40,000 residents of Michigan buy health insurance "after they lost their jobs to foreign competition or had their pension plans terminated," The Detroit News reports.

"The unlimited assistance will put thousands of dollars in the pockets of workers struggling to cope with the burden of paying for their own health care coverage after their jobs were eliminated or their pensions and retirement benefits cut, and will allow others to buy coverage to replace their lost benefits. ... The IRS is expanding efforts to publicize the little-known Health Coverage Tax Credit, which refunds 80 percent of health care premiums and can arrange to pay the bulk of those premiums each month going forward. The credit covers anyone whose job loss is certified under the Trade Adjustment Assistance Act, as well as anyone 55 and over whose pension plan has been taken over by the pension board." In some cases, the tax credit covers more than $15,000 a year in premiums (O'Connor, 2/15).

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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.