Brian Tumulty

Gannett Washington Bureau

WASHINGTON — An estimated 1.5 mil­lion uninsured New Yorkers — includ­ing 60,980 in Monroe, Ontario and Wayne counties — are eligible for a fed­eral tax credit to help them pay for health coverage starting in January, ac­cording to a report released Tuesday.

The new tax credit, part of the 2010 health care reform law, will be paid di­rectly to insurance companies to reduce out-of-pocket premium costs for those who qualify.

“For many of these folks it will be the first time in their lives that they have been able to afford insurance,” New York Rep. Joe Crowley, D-Queens, said in a conference call with reporters.

Of eligible New Yorkers, about 40 percent — more than 603,000 people — are between 18 and 34, according to the report from Families USA, a health care advocacy group.

The tax credit is available to house­holds earning up to 400 percent of the federal poverty threshold. That’s $45,960 for a single person and $94,200 for a family of four.

Families USA, which advocates uni­versal health coverage, acknowledges that some New Yorkers won’t take ad­vantage of the tax credit and will remain uninsured.

But health care experts expect many to participate because the tax credit will make coverage affordable for modest­income families not covered through an employer offering a subsidized rate.

Currently, coverage for individuals who don’t receive a group rate can cost up to $1,200 a month, and family cover­age can cost $2,000 a month, according to Elisabeth Benjamin, vice president of health initiatives for the Community Service Society of New York.

“Those prices are just frankly strato­spheric for most of us,” she said.

Benjamin predicted families will have “extraordinary options” beginning in October, when open enrollment starts for the health plans that will become available next year.

The open enrollment will be conduct­ed through the New York Health Bene­fit Exchange, which the state is setting up as a clearinghouse to market individ­ual policies under guidelines in the 2010 health care reform law.

A study last year by the Urban Insti­tute Health Policy Center estimated 1.1 million New Yorkers will use a new state-run health insurance exchange to purchase coverage.

It’s not clear yet how many of the doz­en health insurers that operate in New York will participate in the exchange, but most are giving it serious consider­ation, according to Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York State Health Plan Association.

“We believe that there will be at least some mild sticker shock just because New York rates are higher than the na­tional average and we have more than three-dozen mandated benefits,” Moran said.

New Yorkers who already have em­ployer- provided health insurance won’t be eligible for the tax credits because the credits are meant to help uninsured individuals and families purchase insur­ance on their own. The tax credits also will help self-employed people who cur­rently purchase their own health insur­ance.

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