By: Carlos Hurst and Yenniree Medina
Introduction
Carlos:Greetings from the Freedom Group. We are a group of three companies offering professional services to the Hispanic community for over 20 years, providing accounting, tax, insurance, financial planning, real estate, and much, much more. As 2025 draws to a close, the open enrollment period for the Health Insurance Marketplace (Obamacare) has begun. Customers and their families should review their health plans to ensure they have the best plan and the best price, which begins in January 2026.
Now, as you know, here at Freedom Group we have the accounting firm, but we also have the insurance agency, which means we have the best team to help you with this issue we’re going to discuss in this video. Why? Because some clients are receiving letters from the health marketplace saying they won’t be able to apply for their health plan if they don’t file their 2024 taxes.
And to help me with this, I’m going to bring in my coworker, Yenire. How are you, Yenire?
Yenniree:Excellent, Carlos. How are you?
Carlos:Okay, thank you, sir. Yenire is the president of Freedom Insurance, a leading authority on health insurance and financial planning.
Yenire, you were telling me, right? Obamacare season has started, right? Many of the other customers should review their insurance, make sure they have the best plan, the best price, especially with all the changes this year to health insurance plans.
You were telling me that some clients are receiving letters saying they won’t be able to get their health plan if they don’t file their 2024 taxes. What’s going on?
The New Requirement of the Insurance Market
Yenniree:That’s right, Carlos. Starting in October, we began seeing many clients receiving these letters. The letter comes directly from the insurance marketplace, which is why it’s so important that whenever you receive a letter or correspondence from the health insurance marketplace, you open it, review it, and then you can do whatever you want with it. But it’s important because many people are already receiving this letter telling them that if they don’t reconcile their taxes, if they don’t file their 2024 taxes, they won’t have coverage for 2026.
Carlos:Wow, that’s really important. I imagine it’s a precautionary measure the government is taking amidst all the changes, right? That we’ve discussed in previous videos, and if you’re not familiar with the changes we’re talking about, please go to our channel. We’ve discussed all the changes to health insurance this year in many videos, and I’ve noticed at least one pattern: several of these changes have been to protect consumers because of the unfortunate amount of fraud that was occurring in the past, especially with insurance plans.
At least I see it as a preventative measure by the government to ensure that the benefits of health plans actually go to the right people and to people who are following the rules of this country. And one of those rules is that you must file your tax return, right?
The Two Conditions for Tax Credit
Yenniree:That’s right. To qualify for the tax credit through Obamacare, we only have two conditions. Number one, that we have a defined immigration status here in this country, right? And number two, that we file taxes.
Why? Because we’re receiving a tax credit from the government, assistance that helps us pay for our health insurance each month, and we’re talking about a significant amount of money in many cases. So, what happens? What are the conditions? I repeat, having legal immigration status and filing taxes.
Many people receive the tax credit and even use the insurance, but when it comes time to file their taxes, they don’t. So, it’s like if I’m telling the insurance marketplace that I’m committing to filing my taxes and then I don’t, the marketplace said this year, if you haven’t filed your taxes in the past few years, you won’t have coverage starting in 2026.
It’s like some plans such as Medicaid. What’s the requirement? Being a permanent resident or a citizen. If you’re not a permanent resident or a citizen, you shouldn’t have this coverage. Okay, we understand. The same thing is happening here. The federal government is giving a significant amount of money each month to insurance companies. People are benefiting because they’re using the insurance, but they’re not fulfilling their tax obligations.
The system will not allow registration.
Carlos:If a person who has not filed their 2024 tax returns tries to obtain a health plan for 2026, the system will not allow it.
Yenniree:That’s right. And that’s something that doesn’t depend on people. It literally depends on the system. The Marketplace used to work like that. After the pandemic, there were many changes, many exceptions. But before, if someone hadn’t filed their taxes, the app would automatically tell us—it wouldn’t let us proceed—that this person hadn’t filed their taxes.
Once you’ve filed your taxes, you can reapply. The same thing is going to happen now. Why? Because the insurance marketplace is partnered with the IRS and receives information directly from them. With that information, they can determine whether the person actually filed their taxes or not. They’re even sending letters to these people. If you’re already receiving a letter, it’s because your information is in the system. When we go to apply to the health insurance marketplace, it will tell us that we don’t qualify because we didn’t file our taxes.
The Importance of Acting Now
Carlos:That’s right. Well, one big difference I’m seeing with the health insurance marketplace, unlike the IRS, is that at least the health insurance marketplace is being proactive and sending these letters. The IRS will never send you a letter saying you haven’t filed. Because unfortunately, the IRS isn’t the most efficient federal agency. And what they do is wait. If you don’t file, they won’t send you a reminder, they won’t send you an email.
They wait. And after you file, the letters start arriving. Right? But at least I’m glad the health insurance marketplace is taking this proactive approach. Now, I think that just like you recommended, if you receive a letter from the health insurance marketplace and pay attention to it, you should also pay attention to the IRS. Right?
And look, people might not have filed last year. There could be a thousand reasons why someone didn’t file their 2024 taxes. Okay? We, as accountants, advise you not to ignore it. The worst thing you can do is nothing with the IRS. Right? No matter the situation. No matter the case. Right?
The IRS, yes, people are very afraid of it. Right? Because maybe a person says, “But if I file, I’ll get a penalty. If I file late, I’ll have to overpay taxes.” Not necessarily. Right?
Real Cases and Solutions
A few years ago, a woman came in here extremely nervous because she hadn’t filed her taxes for 15 years. Right? She was incredibly nervous. She thought they were going to put her in jail. And we said, well, we calmly evaluated the case. Right?
When we evaluated the case, the government owed this woman $34,000 in reimbursement. The government used to reimburse her every year. For 14 years, this woman didn’t receive the money that was rightfully hers. Unfortunately, she wasn’t able to recover all of it, was she? But she did recover some of it.
And that woman left feeling really happy because she thought, “I’m going to get in trouble with the IRS, they’re going to throw me in jail, they’re going to take my house, they’re going to freeze my bank account.” No. There are cases. The IRS does have a lot of power. Right? And I think that’s why people are afraid of the IRS.
But the IRS is also quite flexible, isn’t it? If you show the IRS that you have good intentions of correcting something, they’ll work with you. They’re flexible. And there’s a lot of help available for people who file late, for people who owe money in the past. The government offers many of these forms of assistance.
Unfortunately, people aren’t aware of these benefits. But that’s why we’re here at Freedom Tax, to keep them informed. Right? Especially this year, because if they don’t file, they won’t be able to get health insurance. Which is more important, I understand.
Payment Plans and Options
Yenniree:That’s right. Yes, because that’s the situation, and they definitely won’t be able to have health insurance. Now, Carlos, I don’t know much about the IRS. Are people still within the filing period? This is also to inform our clients who are receiving this information. Are they still able to file their taxes this year, or is the filing period already closed? How does that work?
Carlos:No. If you generated taxable income in 2024 or any other year, it is your responsibility to declare it. If you didn’t request an extension for some reason, right? Unfortunately, it’s already November 2025. If you did request an extension, you still had to file by October 15th, right?
However, in the IRS’s eyes, it’s late. Yes, it’s late. But filing late doesn’t necessarily result in a fine or penalty. Especially for people the government owes money to. Think of it this way: if the government owes you money, they’d rather you didn’t file. Sure. They’d rather keep your money in the government treasury. Right? But for the government to give you your refund, you have to file.
In those cases, the government doesn’t fine or penalize you because you didn’t owe any money. That could be one possibility. Now, if it’s a case where you did owe money, right? The deadline to file your 2024 taxes was April 15, 2025, right? Because even if you request an extension, the extension is to give you more time to file your tax return.
But if I owed taxes, the payment still had to be made on April 15th. Okay? When people come in to open and ask for an extension, we have to tell them, “You have to send an estimated payment.” You have to roughly calculate, look, roughly how much you’re going to owe in order to send that payment on April 15th.
People who owe taxes might have to pay a penalty for late payment, right? But the longer it goes on, the higher the penalty will be. It’s important that the collection process stops, and that the debt stops accumulating. And in that case, there are also many options; there are payment plans, you know what? The government offers help.
IRS Assistance Programs
Okay? If you haven’t filed your 2024 taxes, it could be one of two things. Either the government owes you money, and you should file so they can refund you. That way, there are usually no penalties or fines. But if you do owe money, you have to file, right? Because it’s money you owe the government, and that way you avoid the penalty and fines increasing.
And if there are fines and penalties, well, there are ways to work it out. There are cases where the government eliminates debts, right? Depending on the case, the IRS has a program where if the person can demonstrate that they truly cannot pay their tax debt, the government says, look, you owe me $10,000, but based on your financial situation, look, give me $1,000 and I’ll forgive the other $9,000.
The government has those programs, okay? But work with a tax professional like us here at Freedom Tax, who can help you find a solution so you can file now and not only fulfill your tax obligations but also get your health insurance.
Importance of Updated Payment Plans
Yenniree:Exactly, Carlos. And speaking of what you mentioned about payment plans, it’s great that you brought it up. We’ve also had clients who filed their taxes in 2024, set up a payment plan, but missed one of their payments. And those clients are receiving the same letter as if they hadn’t filed at all. It’s important that if you filed your taxes but also made a payment agreement, you stay current with your payment agreement so you can get health coverage for 2026.
The Advantage of Working with the Freedom Group
Carlos:That’s right. And the good thing is that if you work with us, the process is a little faster, because it’s not the same as working with an insurance agent who might not have direct access to an accountant like we do here, since we’re in the same office, right? We’re right here in person, but Yenniree’s office is literally a minute away from mine.
Yenniree: Walking.
Carlos:Exactly, walking. And if these cases come up, we can resolve them quickly. We can file your taxes quickly and get your health plan all under one roof, right? And you don’t have to be calling one professional and then another and waiting for us. Here at Freedom Group, we’re fortunate to have many solutions for our clients and to work together.
This greatly speeds up the process and makes it much more effective, because insurance agents may not communicate with the client’s accountant. Both professionals need to work together for the client’s benefit, as this is financial information that both should have access to.
Interdepartmental Coordination
Yenniree:That’s right, Carlos. And we see that a lot with our clients. We have, as you say, that blessing, and there are clients we can work with more comfortably when they have their accounting and insurance handled by us. Because I can walk over, as you say, to the office next door and ask that client’s accountant exactly, “Look, what will this person’s Adjusted Gross Income be so I can make an estimated calculation?” And they can tell me. It’s much faster and easier because when we ask the person, for example, a business owner, they don’t know how to identify the income used to calculate their Obamacare premiums.
So I don’t even have to discuss that issue with the client. I go directly to their accountant and we figure out how to adjust, how to help them. Look, they’re working with roughly this number, and if there’s a change, that person or client tells the accountant, and the accountant automatically tells me or our team, saying, “Look, this client needs an income adjustment because they made this change.”
Real Success Story
Or, as happened to us last year, a client had a fairly high income because she owned a restaurant. Right here, that client used all of our services. She contacted the real estate agent to sell the restaurant. She’s an accounting client and a client of ours.
So they sold her the restaurant. Now the accounting department told me, look, she’s not going to have that same income anymore. We’re going to lower it to this point. And I simply made the market adjustment, and the health insurance turned out great for her. So it’s not the same now that neither she as the client nor I as the agent know how much her profit will be. Only the accountant can have that information, and we got it the same day.
He quickly told me, unlike, look, call your accountant, have the accountant do the work, call the client, and then the client will call me. Many times during that call I ask him another question that he can’t answer. He has to call the accountant again, and in that period we can lose a month, maybe, and the person ends up paying more.
The Risks of Not Coordinating Services
Carlos:I love having accounting clients who obviously work with our insurance division here in the group. Because, unfortunately, I’ve had clients who might not use our insurance services here in the group. And unfortunately, the insurance agent our accounting client has isn’t the most ethical person, right? And they don’t guide them properly. And it’s just an insurance agent who’s only looking out for that individual’s commission.
So, as accountants, I’m not a health insurance professional, right? There’s an outside insurance agent who’s giving my accounting client bad advice, right? So, as accountants, we don’t know all the details of their health plan. Then the whole year goes by, tax season comes around, and that’s when the client realizes that what the insurance agent did is going to affect their taxes.
And unfortunately, we accountants are the ones who get the blame, right? Because we’re the ones who have to tell people, “You’re going to have to pay the government $10,000 more than you owe because your health insurance was incorrect,” right? So that puts us in a pretty delicate position. Thankfully, that doesn’t happen with our clients because we have good communication between our two companies, which is a huge benefit that our clients come to us.
Continuous Communication Throughout the Year
Yenniree:That’s right, and it can happen at any time of year. Sometimes halfway through the year, the accountant tells us, “Look, we need to adjust the income,” or “We need to lower the income,” or “We need to raise it,” and we can have all that information readily available. It’s happened to us too, Carlos, clients who call us, “Why do I have to return $4,000, for example?”
Well, because you told me you were going to declare this amount, but in the end you didn’t, so we stayed like that all year. But it turns out the client opened a business, it did really well, and the adjustment was never made in their Obamacare application. Since we don’t communicate with the accountant, we don’t know what’s happening with that client unless the client informs us, and then we can adjust it in the application.
So they call us that, but we let all the clients know, look, any change, whether it’s personal, a child was born, they moved, whatever, or income, they have to let us know, because otherwise at the end of the year it’s not how much I earned from January to March, it’s how much I earned in the whole year.
We also have clients who tell us, “I only have insurance for November and December, so what am I supposed to calculate? What I earned those two months, because I only had insurance for those two months, not the whole year.” So we’ve had that surprise too, and it’s because of the lack of communication.
The Importance of Specialization
The client, for example, I also specialize in insurance, I know absolutely nothing or not much about accounting. What little I know I’ve learned here, but I don’t know exactly about the company, how much goes to personal use, what a K1 is exactly, and the clients are in the same position. So many times I read the clients’ comments, look, they tell me, “I have payroll, but I have a business, what’s the amount I should put down?”
So they don’t know, and we’re not experts in accounting either, but if we have it here, I can say, I don’t even have to have that conversation with the client, I’m going to guide him based on the income the accountant gave me, what the best option is for that person.
Call to Action
Carlos:That’s right, it really is a benefit and a blessing that we have here at the Freedom Group, that we have these three companies that intertwine services and allow us to have that good communication, which is of great benefit to the client. Yenniree, it’s Obamacare season, and people should be reviewing their health insurance, especially this year with so many changes. What do these people need to do?
Yenniree:Exactly, as you mentioned, this is just one of the changes. There are many changes; there are price increases and a decrease in the tax credit, as you mentioned before. We have a lot of content on the channel where we’ve discussed the different changes. You can go and look at it and study it as well, but it is important that people seek a specialist, someone who can really advise them on all these changes and help them find the best option.
The insurance that worked perfectly for you this year might not be the best option next year, and you have the opportunity during this open enrollment period to make any changes you need—change insurance, change doctors, whatever you want to do. If you want to keep your doctor, the insurance company won’t necessarily continue working with that same network, and you might stay with the insurance thinking it will cover you, only to find out when you go in January or February that the doctor won’t accept that insurance.
That’s why it’s so important that you review all the options we have on the market, not just be guided by the fact that the price increased and now I’m going to look for a cheaper one, no, no, no, we are going to really evaluate your case and based on that we want to let you know that there are other companies that are leaving the market and it’s also important to evaluate those cases.
Which company do I have? Aetna, for example, will no longer be in the health insurance market. It’s important that anyone with Aetna review what the best option will be for them. Some companies have significantly increased their prices, and now customers won’t be able to afford that. They need to look for another option as well. So we have to evaluate each case individually.
Conclusion
Carlos:And the good thing is that this review with Freedom Insurance is completely free.
Yenniree: Correct.
Carlos:Take advantage of this year, work with a professional, work with an insurance professional, contact their team at 407-344-1228. The consultation is completely free. The consultation can be in person, via WhatsApp, Zoom, or by phone. Right?
Freedom Insurance brokers work with all insurance companies. They’re not just going to offer you one company. They’re licensed in several states. Take advantage of this opportunity and make sure you have the best health plan for you and your family by 2026.
You know, if you receive this letter saying you need to file your 2024 taxes to get your health insurance in 2026, here at Freedom Group we’re all under one roof. We work as a team and can help you extremely quickly and efficiently.
Okay. Thank you so much for watching this video. I hope you enjoyed it. If you found it helpful, please like and share it with someone who might benefit from this information. Remember that here at Freedom, we’ve been serving our Hispanic community for over 20 years with services in accounting, taxes, insurance, financial planning, real estate, and much more. Thank you for watching, and God bless you.
Summary
Carlos Hurst and Yenniree Medina of the Freedom Group address a critical change in Obamacare requirements for 2026: the requirement to have filed 2024 taxes to obtain health coverage. The Marketplace is proactively sending letters informing beneficiaries that without a tax return they will not be able to enroll in a health plan.
Key Points:
Essential requirements:To receive the Obamacare tax credit, two conditions must be met: (1) having legal immigration status and (2) filing taxes annually. The Marketplace system connects directly to the IRS to verify tax compliance.
Consequences of non-compliance:If 2024 taxes have not been filed, the system will automatically block registration for 2026. This includes people with payment plans who are not up to date with their agreed payments.
Options for those who have not declared:Carlos explains that filing late doesn’t always result in penalties, especially if the government owes a refund. For those who owe taxes, there are payment plans and partial debt forgiveness programs offered by the IRS.
Advantage of the integrated service:The Freedom Group offers accounting and insurance services under one roof, enabling direct coordination between departments. This prevents costly errors such as incorrect income adjustments that can result in thousands of dollars in refunds to the government.
Additional changes in 2026:In addition to tax requirements, there are price increases, decreased tax credits, and companies like Aetna exiting the market. It’s crucial to review all available options with a professional.
The recommendation is clear: don’t ignore Marketplace letters or your IRS obligations. Working with professionals who coordinate both your tax and insurance matters can prevent costly problems and ensure continuity of health coverage. A consultation with Freedom Insurance is free and available in multiple formats (in-person, WhatsApp, Zoom, phone) at 407-344-1228.