2014
DO YOU HAVE HEALTH INSURANCE?
It is the right and responsible thing to do, carry health insurance that is. However, always doing the right and responsible thing, even in ones self interest, is not always how people act. To encourage that action the Affordable Care Act has a penalty for those Americans who do not have insurance. On its surface the penalty looks pretty simple, even while having a low monetary value when compared to the cost of most insurance.
However, as with many things involving the government, what you see is not what you get. If Obamacare relies on the potential of a penalty to keep enrollment numbers up (which is also important to insurers in spreading the risk – and to you in keeping the tax subsidies “affordable.”), there may be a problem because enforcement is questionable and exceptions are many. In other words, there are no penalties for not paying the penalty.
So, if you deem the insurance unaffordable, you may be exempt. If you have an unspecified hardship, you may be exempt and if you are the victim of domestic violence, you may be exempt. The exemptions are aimed at the very people who most likely need health insurance. In Florida if you have a disabled sign on your car, you are exempt from the Obamacare mandate … oh wait, I’m mixing that up with free parking, another perfectly illogical government decision.
I suspect as this law becomes more and more ingrained in our society, it will also become more and more complex. It certainly is off to a good start.
Excerpt from Repercussions and Reprieves at Health Insurance Enrollment Deadline By ROBERT PEAR, New York Times March 29, 2014
It is unclear how aggressive the government will be in enforcing the requirement to have insurance and in collecting the penalty. If a consumer fails to pay the penalty at tax time, the Internal Revenue Service can deduct it from any refund owed to the taxpayer, but it cannot impose a lien on property or garnish wages. Under the health care law, the consumer “shall not be subject to any criminal prosecution” for the failure.
Q. Who is exempt?
A. The health care law authorizes many kinds of exemptions, and the Obama administration has added a few.
Under the law, no penalties can be imposed on people who would have to pay more than 8 percent of their household income for the lowest-priced insurance available to them.
The requirement for people to have coverage does not apply to members of certain religious sects who are “conscientiously opposed to acceptance” of health insurance benefits. Nor does it apply to members of organizations known as health care sharing ministries, which provide a faith-based alternative to traditional insurance.
Prisoners and illegal immigrants are also exempt, and no penalties can be imposed on members of federally recognized Indian tribes.
Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, has authorized “hardship exemptions” for people in more than a dozen categories. These include people who are homeless or facing eviction or foreclosure; victims of domestic violence; and victims of fires, floods and other disasters.
In addition, people are entitled to exemptions if they were found ineligible for Medicaid solely because they live in a state that decided not to expand the program. Congress tried to require states to expand Medicaid, but the Supreme Court ruled in 2012 that states could opt out, and about half have done so.
Exemptions are also available to people who face the cancellation of individual health insurance policies and consider the alternatives unaffordable.
Finally, the administration has created an open-ended category of exemption for people who experience other, unspecified hardships in obtaining insurance.
Some exemptions can be obtained only from an insurance exchange, and others only from the I.R.S.
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