Odds and Ends

I see the hyperlink I thought I had put beneath the photo of reindeer moss ended way at the bottom of my post. Reindeer moss supposedly can be eaten. It is highly recommended that one leach it or cook it first as it is high in acid and can give one a stomach ache if eaten without any processing. Caribou eat a variety of this lichen obviously without cooking it so one wonders just how accurate the information is. I would have to be pretty desperate to try ingesting any of it.

On a happier note, I do have something tasty to suggest. I often try crockpot recipes while on our winter get-away. This year we tried Crockpot Chicken Fajitas. We liked this so well I will probably make it here at home soon.

Crockpot Chicken Fajitas

Serves 6

Ingredients

1 yellow onion, sliced

3 sweet peppers, sliced

2 boneless chicken breasts

1/4 cup chicken broth

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 tablespoons cumin (I had none to add; I used some red pepper flakes in the rental cottage cupboard)

1 1/2 teaspoons chili powder

1-2 tablespoons lime juice (I squeezed a fresh lime)

tortillas—flour ones for fajitas

cheese, sour cream, salsa, guacamole (I had no guacamole to use)

Instructions:

1. Combine sliced onion and peppers in the bottom of a greased crockpot

2.Lay chicken on top of the veggies

3. Pour chicken broth over the chicken

4. Sprinkle everything with cumin, salt, and chili powder

5. Squirt the top with a bit of lime juice

6. Cover and cook on low for 8 hours (or on high for 4-6 hours)  I found chicken and veggies done at 6 hours on high

7. When meat is done, shred with two forks and stir back into the juices

8. Serve with your favorite fajita mixings

Adapt for your own spice level.

 

I received my 1095-A form for filing health care subsidy information on the IRS form a few days before leaving for Alabama. I received an email just before we headed home telling me it was incorrect and that I should wait to file my income tax documents. I have been reading the comments below the announcement made on Healthcare.gov blog. A good many people have not received the 1095-A form at all. People contacted the marketplace about address changes, yet the form was sent to the old address. I had informed them back in November via phone that I would not be purchasing insurance from the marketplace in 2015 as I would be on Medicare. The lady read me a scripted narration to which I had to agree that I understood I would no longer have marketplace insurance as of January.

They automatically re-enrolled everybody who did not apply for a different coverage. I received a bill from my insurer in January and called them. They would not disenroll me. Had to be informed by the marketplace. I simply didn’t pay and so finally in early February was told I no longer had insurance. Of course I had Medicare insurance. It did diddlysquat to call the marketplace and wait on hold 20 minutes in November to inform them of my change. There are all kinds of horror stories about people who called to report changes and those changes were not digitally input. For some, that means repaying part of the subsidy. One lady kept being told she had no 1095-A under her account; turns out they created a 1095 form under her husband’s name who has Medicare and thus no account, but after a month of 30 phone calls she still hasn’t received the form she needs.

So I have joined the elite club of problematic 1095-A forms. I usually try to file my tax forms by mid-March. I have been given no estimate as to when I will receive a corrected form. At least, I won’t have to file an amended tax report since I didn’t file before the snafu was found. The weird thing is that the amount shown for my premium and the amount shown for the subsidy are correct; the wrong column is the Silver Plan used to calculate subsidy amount. They input the 2015 instead of the 2014 Silver Plan cost. But that wrong amount wasn’t used when they calculated the subsidy and probably only affects people who opted to get the subsidy in an annual amount when they filed with the IRS in 2015 rather than someone like me who received a monthly subsidy in advance. Still, I have to wait because the final form won’t match what the IRS finally has in their records. I did a quick glance at the 8902 IRS form and you better believe the government made it complicated. I see I do need to finish my regular 1040 first so I guess I will do that much while I wait for the corrected 1095-A. Makes me really glad that I had Medicare in January and thus don’t have to face 1095-A issues for having marketplace insurance in 2015.