Navigating medical marketplace: Changes coming for those in need of health coverage

If you’re covered by Medicare, Medicaid or health insurance you’ve obtained on your own or through your employer, you don’t have to purchase insurance through the new marketplace.

But if you don’t have insurance, you have until Dec. 15 to buy a plan if you want it to go into effect Jan. 1, 2014. You have until March 31, 2014, to enroll in a plan if you want to avoid paying a tax penalty for violating what is called the individual mandate. The tax will be $95, or up to 1 percent of your annual income, whichever is greater, in 2014; the tax increases to $695, or 2.5 percent of your income, in 2016.

Indiana’s marketplace will offer a menu of all the qualified private insurance plans in the Hoosier state, with the plans and premiums available on the website. The Kaiser Family Foundation says four qualified insurance companies in Indiana have signed up to participate, and will offer a number of plans at various tiers of coverage ranging from least to most expensive — bronze, silver, gold and platinum.