Deadline for affordable health care tomorrow

HATTIESBURG, Miss - If you're looking for health coverage starting January 1st, 2016 tomorrow is the deadline to sign up.

Willie Taylor, Outreach Coordinator for the Mississippi Health Act Collaborative says, "Tomorrow December 15th deadline is more so that the individual can attain coverage effecive January 1st, 2016."

The USM School of Social Work received the Navigator Grant to help Pinebelt residents sign up for medical coverage.

"The grant itself was piggy backed off the city, the E3 Health Initiative in order to help and maximize medicaid and chip recepients" Taylor says.

If you miss the Open Enrollment deadline January 31st, 2016 of attaining insurance there is a penalty. An adult will have to pay $695.00, a child half that amount.

Gallup recently announced that the uninsured rate in Mississippi in 2014 was 18.7%, down from 22.4% in 2013.

The deadline to sign up for insurance all together is January 31st, 2016, however it will not take into effect January 1st, 2016.

To learn more about the Affordable Healthcare Act you can go online at www.healthcare.gov