How or where to enroll for health coverage not always straight-forward

For some consumers, understanding how or where to enroll in coverage can get complicated.

That’s the case for Ed, a Las Vegan who wrote us for help on how to sign up his mother-in-law, who’s moving here in December.

Ed’s mother-in-law is 65. That’s easy: She should be eligible for federally run Medicare, right?

In this case, no. She’s from the Philippines and not a U.S. citizen.

Ed wanted to know if his mother-in-law could instead buy on the state insurance exchange and qualify for a tax credit, particularly if she has no income. But that won’t be an option, either. You have to be a citizen to qualify for the federal subsidy.

That doesn’t mean she needs to go without coverage.

Broker Chris Carothers of Carothers Insurance Agency said anyone can buy an off-exchange plan directly from any insurer.

Len Barend of The Barend Agency said he has at least one 84-year-old client who has purchased coverage that way and qualified for the 64-year-old rate.

■ A local resident who wanted to remain nameless needed help tracking down information about his insurance options. As of three weeks before his coverage expired, he said had yet to receive any renewal notice from his insurer. He wanted to know when the company was supposed to reach out with 2015 plan details, especially because he was going to be moving into an Obamacare-compliant plan for the first time.

Consumers should begin looking for a mailer from their insurer about 30 days before their plan expires.

To help out our reader, we asked his insurer what was up with his renewal. The company sent us a copy of an Oct. 29 notice it mailed, letting him know about his renewal options — a notice that must have gotten lost in the mail.

If you haven’t heard from your insurer and you’re less than a month away from your policy’s expiration date, call the company and ask them what’s up. That’s especially important if you have to move into a plan that meets the benefits standards of the Affordable Care Act. Your old plan won’t automatically renew, so if you drop the ball, you could be without coverage.

■ We’re always on the lookout for new resources that help people understand coverage options and requirements. To that end, national informational website healthinsurance.org has a new ebook called “The Insider’s Guide to Obamacare’s Open Enrollment (2014-2015).”

Health reform specialist Louise Norris wrote the 38-page guide.

“My hope is that readers will gain reassurance that the health law is actually going to give them more options — and more affordable options — for solid coverage, but also that the enrollment process doesn’t have to be long and frustrating,” Norris said.

To download the book, go to http://www.healthinsurance.org/obamacare/insiders-guide-to-obamacares-open-enrollment/.

Also, the Kaiser Family Foundation, a California nonprofit that studies health public policy, has a new calculator designed to give consumers ZIP code-specific premium and tax credit estimates for exchange coverage.

The estimates are based on ZIP, household income, family size and family members’ ages. The calculator also helps consumers figure out if they’re eligible for Medicaid.

To see the calculator, and to read Kaiser’s “Understanding Health Insurance,” a publication that answers nearly 300 frequently asked questions about the Affordable Care Act, visit kff.org.