|
Heritage
Foundation
Does
the Obamacare Deadline Apply to Me?
Amy
Payne
March
18, 2014
In
two weeks, Obamacare’s centerpiece—the individual mandate to
purchase government-approved health insurance—kicks in.
Are
you “covered,” as the White House keeps asking in its endless
advertising? Because if you don’t have health insurance by March
31, you will have to pay a penalty on your income tax form next year.
For
2014, the penalty for not purchasing insurance will be either $95 or
1 percent of your annual income (whichever is greater). But as
Heritage expert Alyene Senger explains, “Very few, if any, people
will end up paying just $95, because individuals with an annual
income of only $9,500 or less would likely qualify for Medicaid or a
hardship exemption from the mandate.”
If
you don’t make enough income to file a federal tax return, you’re
already exempt. Do you think you qualify for a hardship exemption?
Check out the application (subject to approval by Health and Human
Services) here. For example, did you:
Receive
“a shut-off notice from a utility company”?
Recently
experience the death of a close family member?
Receive
a notice that your health plan was being canceled, and “you
consider the other plans available unaffordable”?
At
the end of the list, the application form has the catch-all reason
“You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.”
To prove it? “Please submit documentation if possible.”
Despite
all these possible exemptions, The Fiscal Times reports, “A new
study by Bankrate.com shows that about one-third of uninsured
Americans are going to remain without coverage and opt to pay the
penalty.” In fact, more than half of the uninsured are “unaware
of the March 31 deadline.”
If
you think the penalty is no big deal right now, Heritage’s Senger
warns that “The mandate increases drastically in coming years,
rising to $325 or 2 percent of income in 2015, and $695 or 2.5
percent of income in 2016—whichever is greater.”
The
Congressional Budget Office estimates that from 2015 to 2024, the
mandate penalty—which the Supreme Court ruled is essentially a
tax—is expected to cost Americans $51 billion.
And
that was after President Obama promised not to raise taxes on the
middle class.
It’s
worth mentioning the official name of this tax—because it just
doesn’t get any more Orwellian. Really, it’s the left’s ideal
name for all taxes: the “shared responsibility payment.”
Get
ready to pay up, comrades.
Read
this and other articles at the Heritage Foundation
|
