Sunday, Feb. 15, is the 2015 deadline to enroll for health insurance coverage through the Affordable Care Act’s process. The information that’s out there can be pretty overwhelming, and sometimes websites don’t work, especially when enrollment is time sensitive, as it now is. For procrastinators, here are some good places to start, hopefully help to beat the deadline, and most importantly, enroll in insurance coverage.

A good starting place is the healthcare.gov website. Be sure to use the .gov, as other places (.com, .net, etc.) aren’t actually the insurance exchange and at worst, can be scams. From there, if things get confusing, as insurance often does, another option is to call 800-318-2596 for help, according to healthcare.gov. Or, by clicking on “Find local help” and providing a zip code, there are more direct ways to get ahold of someone and ask questions.

The site itself answers such questions as what kind of coverage a person qualifies for when the marketplace application is filled out. Unfortunately, Nebraska is one of the states that has chosen to not expand Medicaid, so clicking on the link about what Medicaid expansion means will help explain how this affect people. However, many folks are qualifying for subsidies, which are automatically applied to specific plans, often the silver level, and help people afford more comprehensive coverage, with the subsidies based on income.

Why should a person go to the effort? Because there are actually financial and societal benefits to having health insurance, especially if something happens and a person has medical needs. That being said, the ACA coverage is not meant to take the place of employer-sponsored coverage for sick workers.

As has been mentioned before in this blog, folks having health insurance coverage benefits more than just the individual.

“You’ll be pulling your weight. Americans pick up the costs of caring for uninsured patients in the form of higher insurance premiums, higher taxes and more expensive care,” according to an editorial around this time last year in the Kansas City Star newspaper.

In addition to the benefits of having health insurance, there is a greater penalty for not enrolling this year than there was last year, according to healthcare.gov. “If you don’t have health coverage during 2015, you may have to pay a penalty. The fee in 2015 is higher than it was for 2014 – 2 percent of your income or $325 per adult/$162.50 per child, whichever is more.”

Just as it’s important for employers to have workers’ compensation insurance coverage, individuals – and their families – should have health insurance to try to plan for the unknown.