Fox NewsDon’t have health insurance? Get ready to pay up.
The ObamaCare-mandated fines for not having insurance are rising in 2015 — and for the first time, will be collected by the Internal Revenue Service.
The individual requirement to buy health insurance went into effect earlier this year. But this coming tax season is the first time all taxpayers will have to report to the IRS whether they had health insurance for the prior year.
The fines for the 2014 year were relatively modest — $95 per person or 1 percent of household income (above the threshold for filing taxes), whichever is more.
But insurance scofflaws face a sharp increase if they don’t get covered soon. The fine will jump in 2015 to $325 or 2 percent of income, whichever is higher. By 2016, the average fine will be about $1,100, based on government figures.
The insurance requirement and penalties remain the most unpopular part of the health care law. They were intended to serve a broader purpose by nudging healthy people into the insurance pool, helping to keep premiums more affordable. But the application of fines in 2015 could renew criticism of the law, at a time when Republicans are taking control of Congress and looking at ways to undercut the policy.
According to government figures, tens of millions of people still fall into the ranks of the uninsured.
Unclear is how many would actually be assessed a fine. The law offers about 30 different exemptions, most of which involve financial hardships. Further, it’s unclear how aggressively the IRS would go after the fines.
Many taxpayers may be able to get a pass.
Based on congressional analysis, tax preparation giant H&R Block says roughly 4 million uninsured people will pay penalties and 26 million will qualify for exemptions from the list of waivers.
Deciding what kind of waiver to seek could be crucial. Some can be claimed directly on a tax return, but others involve mailing paperwork to the Department of Health and Human Services. Tax preparation companies say the IRS has told them it’s taking steps to make sure taxpayers’ returns don’t languish in bureaucratic limbo while HHS rules on their waivers.
TurboTax has created a free online tool called “Exemption Check” for people to see if they may qualify for a waiver. Charges apply later if the taxpayer files through TurboTax. People also can get a sense of the potential hit by going online and using the Tax Policy Center’s Affordable Care Act penalty calculator.
Timing also will be critical for uninsured people who want to avoid the rising penalties for 2015.
That’s because Feb. 15 is the last day of open enrollment under the health law. After that, only people with special circumstances can sign up. But just 5 percent of uninsured people know the correct deadline, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation poll.
“We could be looking at a real train wreck after Feb. 15,” said Stan Dorn, a health policy expert at the nonpartisan Urban Institute. “People will file their tax returns and learn they are subject to a much larger penalty for 2015, and they can do absolutely nothing to avoid that.”
In a decision that allowed Obama’s law to advance, the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that the coverage requirement and its accompanying fines were a constitutionally valid exercise of Congress’ authority to tax.
Sensitive to political backlash, supporters of the health care law have played down the penalties in their sign-up campaigns. But stressing the positive — such as the availability of financial help and the fact that insurers can no longer turn away people with health problems — may be contributing to the information gap about the penalties.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2014/12/30/obamacare-fines-rising-in-2015-irs-prepares-to-collect/
things are getting more and more in-your-face insane by each day. Good. More people will wise up as the noose tightens, though some will undoubtedly just lie there and take it without even a whimper. Kafkaesque.
Oh let me see……? I couldn’t afford health insurance before because the Insurance Companies owned by a bunch of offshore investment banks overcharged far beyond any reason. Now those same Insurance Companies have lobbied congress to pass corporate welfare for the which would put myself beyond the point financially of keeping a roof over my head. Now also because I can’t afford these outrageous premiums now an unfunded mandate I’m being penalized with fines that eventually will lead to 250,000 dollar fines and 5 years in prison. Have I missed anything?
So the answer is pretty simple. If they actually try to implement and enforce this piece of unconstitutional, immoral, draconian legislation that there is only one final outcome that I would predict based on what I have been told by other people I’ve talked to. They’ve gone too far, and we’ve had enough.
WAR!!!! That is the prevailing attitude in private conversations over the last couple of years with people I don’t even know. Have I missed anything??? From the reports in the news on gun purchases since 2009, and especially this year it looks like things are either going to get better or they are going to escalate toward civil war. Here we go again. 🙁
I had to comply. The fine was just as high as actually having this garbage. 1 person 512.00 a month, 6000 deductible. I feel like I just shit down my own neck. I just couldn,t afford not too, these assholes would have made my life a living hell because of my work.
6000 deductible???????????
Rock and a hard place…
Oh yeah,almost forgot. Say good by to ever owning a car, house or ever going on a fun vacation….
Hey Mark in NV, You apparently didn’t qualify for any of the discounts. How does it make you feel when the beaners can step over the border and be handed free health care, food stamps, public housing so they can do all the jobs that are purported to be unwanted by American Nationals?
It feels shitty Millard.
I haven’t signed up and have no insurance. Looks like there will be no tax refund for me. I was hoping the repugs would do something but, alas, nothing. I keep forgetting that Dems and the GOP are on the same team.
How anyone could think that it would be OK to force any of us to buy something we cannot afford without going into deeper and deeper debt, is beyond me. It doesn’t even matter that insurance might be a good or smart thing to have (maybe even just catastrophic), it doesn’t matter that some people previously unable to buy insurance are now able to, what really matters (to me, anyway) is that there is this rock and hard place where you are forced between two very bad choices. As Mark in NV puts it, say goodbye to anything resembling discretionary income. How do you like your slavery so far? For those of us who are in this awful position of not being eligible for subsidies, but we are of a certain age and possibly in a high cost of living area, there are no adjustments in this stupid, stupid law for people like us. My income in this high cost of living area may seem high in some other parts of the country, but here it barely pays for my subsistence living. Health insurance of $500 or $600 a month is not even in the REALM of possibility for someone like me, a healthy female nonsmoker who does no pharmaceutical drugs of any sort and eats healthy, exercises, etc. on purpose to enjoy life AND lower my healthcare costs. Call me lucky, or call me responsible. I simply DON’T HAVE THE MONEY for doctors, drugs, or insurance. I gave up vacations and extras long ago. For now, I put my money in healthy food (which is not cheap). You want to take my healthy food away from me? Shouldn’t that be my choice? You cannot get blood from a stone. The money ISN’T THERE. Just because I’m older, doesn’t mean I’m not healthy. I’m healthier than most people half my age. I shouldn’t have to go into debt to pay for the overpriced*** healthcare of strangers, no matter how kind-hearted that might seem to be. But the point is — I can’t. If I could, if I had megabucks, even then it would be wrong to extort this money from me, but it would be easier for me to let it go, mentally. Because I could sort of rationalize it as some sort of charity or me being generous to those less fortunate (even though it’s robbing me — forced). But I’m barely making it financially, so how is this OK? It’s not.
***overpriced: I just learned from a friend the other day that her lab culture for a UTI cost $900 before insurance took $750 off that price. Even the $150 she had to pay is too high. But $900 is so beyond anything remotely, intelligently reasonable for a simple lab test like this. How did we get to this place???
It’s called “greed”.
This is unconstitutional. They can make up whatever f…ing laws they want. I now know when I wake up every morning in this country that the leaders (dems or repubs} are A. Corrupt B. Psychopaths C. Thieves or D. All the Above.