Co-ops condos may now be eligible for grants AFFORDABLE CARE ACT: Exchange sign up starts Oct. 1 BY LIAM LA GUERRE The first dose of the Affordable Care Act, nicknamed Obamacare, is nearly ready to start rolling. People can sign up for health insurance through the Health Care Marketplace starting on Tuesday, October 1, which will take effect when provisions of the legislation start on January 1, 2014. The sign-up period will continue until March 31, and consumers can apply for Marketplace coverage online, by mail or in-person. The Marketplaces work either through individual state health departments or with the United States Department of Health and Human Services in 36 states. In New York consumers have to go to www.nystateofhealth.ny.gov if they want to apply for coverage under the Marketplace. Prices and applications in the Marketplace will be available on October 1. The exchanges are designed to help people find lower premiums. The system gathers all available insurance options in the state and rates them in a simple structure-- bronze, silver, gold and platinum. Bronze plans will be the cheapest with the fewest benefits, while platinum will be the most expensive. This week the national health department released a report that said the plans on the exchanges will make insurance premiums on average more affordable. Obamacare will force companies to drop discrimination based on pre-existing conditions, so for example people with diabetes or asthma won’t be charged larger premiums or refused coverage. Some provisions of the health care reform act are already in action, such as children being able to stay on their parents’ health care plan until age 26. Since the legislation was designed to help people without insurance find coverage by making it more affordable, if someone already has a private health care plan or receives care through another method, such as a company plan, they will not need to apply for a new plan from the exchanges. Someone who does not have health insurance by January 1 will have to pay a fee of one percent of their income or $95, whichever is higher, and the fee for each uninsured child is $47.50, with a cap of $285 per family. This fee will increase every year, but there are ways to be exempted, such as being a member of a religious sect that has objections to insurance. Republican leaders have been trying to delay Obamacare, saying that it will be too costly and raise taxes. Senator Ted Cruz held a marathon 21-hour speech in opposition to the legislation from Tuesday, September 24 to September 25. For more information visit: https://www. healthcare.gov. MARK YOUR CALENDAR The North Shore Towers Political Action Committee, chaired by Felice Hannah, is holding its first of a series of monthly informational and political workshops. Topic: Domestic Violence Awareness Lecturer: Susan Bartlestone, Domestic Violence Specialist and NST Political Action Committee member Date and Time: Wednesday, October 16 from 7 to 8 p.m. Place: Coleridge Lounge Arcade at the North Shore Towers, 26910 Grand Central Parkway, Floral Park, New York 11005 BY MELISSA CHAN The City Council has unanimously passed a resolution calling for Congress to make coop and condos eligible for federal storm recovery grants. “Condo and co-op owners are homeowners too,” said Councilmember Peter Vallone Jr. who brought forth the measure. “Yet, right now, the federal government is denying them Sandy relief. That needs to change.” The resolution, introduced September 12, comes after many citywide co-op and condo owners found they could not receive FEMA grants for Sandyinflicted damages. The measure sailed through the City Council less than two weeks later on September 24. The Council’s Committee on Housing and Buildings moved the resolution forward earlier that morning. It would push the passage of an already proposed federal law that aims to fix a glitch keeping co-op and condo owners from disaster aid. The Stafford Act, which governs how FEMA responds to major disasters, does not include the word “co-op” in the law, officials said. However, there is no statute that bans co-op owners from being eligible for grants, a privilege given to homeowners. Co-op and condos are also categorized as “business associations,” which makes them eligible for federal loans but not grants. It also means they cannot get funds to fix shared spaces like lobbies and roofs. Congressmember Steve Israel introduced a law in August that would better define co-ops in the Stafford Act, allow co-op and condo owners to apply for FEMA grants, and call for a new cap on FEMA’s Individual and Households Program. The proposed legislation currently sits in a subcommittee on the House’s Committee on Transportation and Infrastructure. Warren Schreiber of the Presidents Co-op & Condo Council said the resolution would be used as a bully pulpit to boost federal efforts. “They can send that on to the congressional delegation,” he said. “That would make a big difference.” Some Queens co-ops, like Glen Oaks Village, sustained more than $250,000 in damage to infrastructure, according to the co-op’s president Bob Friedrich. Councilmember Eric Ulrich, who represents some of the most Sandy-devastated areas, said co-op and condo communities in the Rockaways are facing “astronomical” renovation costs that exceed $250,000. Vallone will now urge Congress, in a letter, to enact the federal bill. North Shore Towers Courier n October 2013 19
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