Kaiser foundation offers health subsidy calculator

The Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonprofit research organization, has released an online calculator for people to estimate the amount of potential insurance subsidies they may qualify for under the Affordable Care Act.

The federal and state-run online insurance marketplaces are expected to be operational this fall. Companies will use the marketplace, a product of the federal legislation passed in 2010, to sell health insurance.

The federal law mandates that most people have health insurance starting Jan. 1.

The calculator can provide only estimates because prices for plans on the marketplace have not been released.

Open enrollment is scheduled to begin Oct. 1. The calculator can be found at www.kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/.

This story was originally published August 8, 2013 at 3:01 PM with the headline "Kaiser foundation offers health subsidy calculator."