A one-page guide to the Health Insurance Marketplace

Here’s a quick rundown on the most important things to know about the Health Insurance Marketplace, sometimes known as the health insurance “exchange.” Follow the links for more information on each topic.

Important. 2014 Marketplace Open Enrollment ended March 31. You can still buy a Marketplace health plan only if you qualify for a special enrollment period. You can apply for Medicaid and CHIP any time. Find out if you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period or Medicaid and CHIP. Open Enrollment for 2015 coverage starts November 15, 2014.

The Health Insurance Marketplace helps uninsured people find health coverage. Fill out a Marketplace application and we’ll tell you if you qualify for:

• Private health insurance. Plans cover essential health benefits, pre-existing conditions, and preventive care. Some plans include dental coverage. In other cases, free-standing dental plans are available.
• Lower costs based on your household size and income. You can preview plans available in your area right now, with prices based on your income and household size. Most people who apply will qualify for lower costs.
• Medicaid and the Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP). These programs cover millions of families with limited income. If it looks like you qualify, we’ll share information with your state agency and they’ll contact you. Many but not all states are expanding Medicaid to cover more people. Find out what Medicaid expansion means for you.

Most people are eligible to use the Marketplace. Learn more about immigration status and eligibility.

Most people must have health coverage or pay a penalty. If you don’t have coverage in 2014, you’ll pay a fee of either 1% of your income, or $95 per adult ($47.50 per child), whichever is higher. You’ll pay the fee on your 2015 income taxes.

Some people qualify for an exemption from the fee, based on income or other factors.

You’re considered covered if you have Medicare, Medicaid, CHIP, any job-based plan, any plan you bought yourself, COBRA, retiree coverage, TRICARE, VA health coverage, or some other kinds of health coverage.

You can also buy a plan outside the Marketplace and still be considered covered. If you buy outside the Marketplace, you won’t be eligible for premium tax credits or lower out-of-pocket costs based on your income.

If you’re eligible for job-based insurance, you can consider switching to a Marketplace plan. But you won’t qualify for lower costs based on your income unless the job-based insurance isn’t considered affordable or doesn’t meet minimum requirements.

If you have Medicare, you’re considered covered and don’t have to make any changes. If you have Medicare, you can’t use the Marketplace to buy a supplemental plan or dental plan.

Learn how to apply through the Marketplace—online, by phone, or with a paper application..

Start your application now.

Questions? Call 24 hours a day, 7 days a week: 1-800-318-2596 (TTY: 1-855-889-4325)

Looking for Social Media Tips? Register for the SBA and Hootsuite Webinar

Social media is becoming an increasingly important communication channel for small businesses. However, knowing where to start is perhaps the number one obstacle holding many small business owners back. That’s why SBA has teamed up with Hootsuite for a free webinar about how social media can help your small business succeed on Tuesday, September 16 at 2:00 PM ET (1:00 PM CENTRAL).

In this 1 hour webinar, Don Baron, Director of SMB Business Development at Hootsuite will share strategies that can help you better utilize social media for your small business.

Participants will learn:

• Why social media is relevant for small businesses
• A variety of social media strategies as they relate to marketing, sales and support
• Tactics and tools that will help you execute your strategies
• Case studies of small business success on social media

> Register today! 

Small businesses in certain parts of southeast Nebraska seeking to buy and sell to the federal government soon will be able to take advantage of a program to successfully bid for contracts.

The American Library Association (ALA) is encouraging librarians to know how to use My Social Security (MySSA), the online Social Security resource.

A webinar, presented by leaders and members of the development team of MySSA, will provide listeners with an overview of MySSA. In addition to receiving benefits information in print, the Social Security Administration is encouraging librarians and patrons to create an online MySSA account to view and track benefits.

Listeners will learn about viewing earnings records and receiving instant estimates of their future Social Security benefits. Those already receiving benefits can check benefit and payment information and manage their benefits.

Speakers include:

• Maria Artista-Cuchna, Acting Associate Commissioner, External Affairs
• Kia Anderson, Supervisory Social Insurance Specialist
• Arnoldo Moore, Social Insurance Specialist
• Alfredo Padilia Jr., Social Insurance Specialist
• Diandra Taylor, Management Analyst

Registration is full for the live webinar on Wednesday, September 17, 2014.
However, to be notified when the recorded session is available, please go to Lib2Gov Webinar: MySSA.

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A live training webinar, “Federal Legislative History 101,” will be offered on Tuesday, October 7, 2014.

Register today for “Federal Legislative History 101”

• Start time: 2:00 p.m. Eastern Time/ 1:00 Central
• Duration: 60 minutes
• Speaker: Rick McKinney is Assistant Law Librarian / Legislative Librarian at the Federal Reserve Board Law Library in Washington, D.C., where he has served for the past 30 years. He is the founder and principal editor of LLSDC’s Legislative Source Book on the Internet and has authored numerous articles and presentations in the field of Federal statutory, legislative, and regulatory research.
• Learning outcomes: The webinar will discuss the ways in which Federal statutes are published and cited, what Federal legislative histories are and how they are used, the normal steps in compiling and researching Federal legislative histories, and the various resources available for Federal legislative history research – both free and commercial.
• Expected level of knowledge for participants: No prerequisite knowledge required

The webinar is free, but registration is required. Upon registering, a confirmation email, which includes instructions for joining the webinar, will be sent to you.

Registration confirmations will be sent from sqldba @ icohere.com. To ensure delivery of registration confirmations, registrants should configure junk mail or spam filter(s) to permit messages from that email address. If you do not receive the confirmation, please notify GPO at FDLPOutreach.

GPO’s eLearning platform is now presenting webinars using WebEx. In order to attend or present at a GPO-hosted webinar, a WebEx plug-in must be installed in your internet browser(s). Download instructions.

For access to other archived Federal Depository Library Program webinars and webcasts and for a calendar of upcoming webinars and educational events, please visit the Training and Events page on FDLP.gov.

Nebraska beef plant reopens, creates jobs thanks to SBA International Trade Loan financing

For five years, the meatpacking plant in this part of ranch country in northwest Nebraska stood vacant and silent. Now, thanks in part to new owners and SBA financing, the plant has re-opened as a supplier for organic, natural grass-fed, premium and halal beef for domestic and overseas markets, and given a small town a big economic jolt.

Open Range Beef purchased the shuttered plant from the city of Gordon in late June 2013, and have spent the last few months upgrading the operation with state-of-the-art equipment and material. With the purchase and re-opening, the business also created 100 new jobs, said co-owner Pat Shudak (pictured, left), a big deal for a town of around 1,800 people.

The company was approved for $3.8 million in financing in April using the SBA’s International Trade Loan program, one of only four guaranteed loans of this type in the four-state region this fiscal year.  

The 36,000-square foot plant expects to hit a target of 250-300 head of cattle per day, or about $120 million worth of cattle per year, from local ranchers for its USDA-certified beef processing operation. Open Range Beef chiefly will serve Rastelli Foods, a New Jersey-based humane and sustainable agricultural company with high-end clients in both domestic and overseas markets.

Serving as a hub for specialty and organic meats for export, the company had to buy more expensive equipment such as hot water to clean carcasses, and follow strict guidelines. For example: there’s a long list of specific requirements for meat to be certified halal if it’s to be exported to Muslim customers.

“We’ll be sending beef to Japan, Hong Kong, the Middle East, Europe,” Shudak added.  “The qualifications and restrictions are long; some dictate cattle only be 30 months or younger, and some countries don’t allow importing certain parts, such as livers, kidneys and parts outside the main cuts of meat.  Each country’s certification is different.”

Because the plant is mid-sized, explained co-owner Jill Noetzelman, “we can switch gears whenever we need to for custom slaughtering, which benefits meat producers and the packer,” a competitive advantage over bigger plants, such as those which process up to 5,000 head of cattle a day. Those enormous operations leverage economies of scale with relatively inflexible work flows can’t allow for smaller, specialty orders.

As a result, Shudak claimed, Open Range Beef’s operation expects to have a direct positive impact of nearly $5 million a year and an overall economic impact of $22 to 25 million a year for the area.

“We also purchase our supplies as much as possible locally from retail, lumber yards and hardware stores,” Noetzelman said, a move which generates significant secondary economic benefits for the town from the plant’s presence.

“It’s too soon to say what our revenues look like,” Shudak added. But the outlook is bright: “The cattle market was at an all-time high when we took over, and it’s even looking a lot better now.”

Ranchers also will benefit with Open Range Beef’s location: the next closest packing plants for livestock producers in the area are Lexington and Hastings, Neb., and Fort Morgan, Colo., some hundreds of miles away.

Shudak said the ownership team moved from building a solar development company in Hawaii as part of its investment portfolio to the specialty beef industry after a high school friend of Shudak’s mentioned he had considered going into the fast-growing specialty beef business. Private equity supplied the financing to purchase the plant, but the team needed more for the equipment, operating capital and cattle purchases.

“This wasn’t a conventional loan like for a retail or storefront business,” Noetzelman said. So they turned to BizCapital, a multi-state lender which offers competitive loans to small- and medium-sized companies located in underserved markets, and one of Missouri’s Lenders of the Year for 2012, and First Bank of the Lake, an Ozarks-based lender experienced with SBA applications. With their help over the six-month application process, Open Range Beef was approved for $3.8 million in financing in April 2014 using the SBA’s International Trade Loan program, one of only four guaranteed loans of this type in the four-state region this fiscal year.  This program which offers a 90 percent guarantee to the lender, offers access to capital for a small business in a position to expand existing export markets or develop new export markets.

“I don’t believe we would have put this together without the SBA,” Shudak said. “The nice thing is that we had a lot of equity in this plant and had real strong appraisals. In approving our loan, the SBA focused on job creation, helping the local economy, exporting, things that really matter to our business. Without the SBA, we found banks weren’t keen on certain businesses, and packing houses were one of them.”

And for a good reason: the business of beef harvesting and processing industry is cash-intensive and a volatile commodity-based one.

Shudak said future plans call for expansion of the plant’s cooler space and adding more jobs as the company’s capacity grows.
“The majority of our employees we have now we first hired at the beginning for construction work during the renovation,” Shudak said. “When we started the remodeling there was a real lack of available construction crews in the area, so we brought in a construction manager and hired former plant workers and trained them.”

When they finished the construction work, those same employees put down their hammers and put on their frocks, and Shudak noticed “there’s a huge amount of pride in the building, because they did the work to bring it back.”

While the town’s residents, along with members from the nearby Oglala Sioux Tribe reservation, who filled many plant positions in the past, make for a healthy labor pool, the plant’s promised growth is enough so a challenge for Gordon’s city manager is to address potential housing shortages incoming workers likely are to face.

Open Range Beef also points to the area’s diverse work force as a benefit, with Native American, African-American, and Guatemalan and other Hispanic employees of all working ages on staff, and young professionals in the area also seeking to be part of the business.

“You know, our philosophy coming into the business here is that you treat your employees like family, appreciate each individual, and create the positive work environment where employees who spent 8-10 hours a day here want to come to work here,” Noetzelman said.

Reprinted from SBA.gov.   For more information about the U.S. Small Business Administration. and how it’s loans and grants can help, visit SBA.gov/Loans & Grants.

One of the new Nebraska laws going into effect today, July 1st, 2014, will create a state Sesquicentennial Commission to plan for Nebraska’s 150th anniversary as a state in 2017. The Nebraska Sesquicentennial Commission will consist of 17 members appointed by the governor. Starting today, Gov. Dave Heineman will have 60 days to appoint the members.

The Sesquicentennial seal, at left, blends the Platte River with Chimney Rock and sandhill cranes.  It will be used for all official events and documents relating to Nebraska’s celebration of 150 years of statehood. Information about early planning and fundraising efforts is available online at Nebraska150.org