Great question! There would be a couple of immediate results. The first is that you would no longer have the benefit of insurance to help pay for costs should you become sick or injured. Those costs can be devastating to your financial stability. The second is that under the Affordable Care Act, there are penalties for not having insurance, that are leveled when you file your taxes for this year. The health insurance companies limit the ability to enroll in their programs, and many workplace plans will not drop you until the open enrollment period unless you meet specified conditions.Without knowing the reason that you are considering dropping your coverage, I would ask that you would have a plan in place before you actually do drop your coverage. If I can provide more information, please feel free to contact me. Thanks for asking!
First of all, you become uninsured and are at financial risk for any injuries or illnesses you may incur. If you are cancelling individual health insurance after April 1, 2014 you will be unable to apply for new major medical insurance until the next open enrollment period for coverage effective January 1, 2015 (absent of a change of life status event such as marriage or divorce for a couple of examples, getting sick is not a change of life status event under the law). This is one of the aspects of the Affordable Care Act (ObamaCare) that many individuals are unaware of. In addition, for the period in 2014 that you are not covered by a major medical policy that meets the requirements of the ACA you will be subject to a prorated tax penalty of $95 or 1% of your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (whichever is greater) when you do your 2014 taxes in 2015.
If you have found the cost of major medical coverage that is ACA compliant to be unsustainable (and many individuals are struggling with this issue) and coverage for pre-existing conditions isn't a concern and you are relatively healthy then you might want to consider a Short Term Medical policy as an alternative to provide you with protection at what may be considerably lower cost.
You should consider the consequences before cancelling any existing individual health insurance policy you may have and explore your options with an experienced, competent health insurance broker. If you need assistance in this regard please feel free to contact me.
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If you have found the cost of major medical coverage that is ACA compliant to be unsustainable (and many individuals are struggling with this issue) and coverage for pre-existing conditions isn't a concern and you are relatively healthy then you might want to consider a Short Term Medical policy as an alternative to provide you with protection at what may be considerably lower cost.
You should consider the consequences before cancelling any existing individual health insurance policy you may have and explore your options with an experienced, competent health insurance broker. If you need assistance in this regard please feel free to contact me.