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Obama administration officials and other supporters of the Affordable Care Act say they worry that the tax-filing season will generate new anger as uninsured consumers learn that they must pay tax penalties and as many people struggle with complex forms needed to justify tax credits they received in 2014 to pay for health insurance.
The White House has already granted some exemptions and is considering more to avoid a political firestorm.
Mark J. Mazur, the assistant Treasury secretary for tax policy, said up to six million taxpayers would have to “pay a fee this year because they made a choice not to obtain health care coverage that they could have afforded.”
If that's not a big enough boondoggle, now comes the part about subsidies, many of which were "estimated" and people will now have to pay back some of those amounts that were paid directly to insurance companies for premiums.
No individual, company, business, nonprofit entity, or health insurance issuer offering group or individual health insurance coverage shall be required to participate in any Federal health insurance program created under this Act (or any amendments made by this Act), or in any Federal health insurance program expanded by this Act (or any such amendments), and there shall be no penalty or fine imposed upon any such issuer for choosing not to participate in such programs.
Exemptions from the payment
If you don’t have minimum essential coverage, you may qualify for an exemption from the penalty if any of the following apply to you. Learn how to apply for any of these exemptions.
•You’re uninsured for less than 3 months of the year
•The lowest-priced coverage available to you would cost more than 8% of your household income
•You don’t have to file a tax return because your income is too low (Learn about the filing limit (PDF))
•You’re a member of a federally recognized tribe or eligible for services through an Indian Health Services provider
•You’re a member of a recognized health care sharing ministry
•You’re a member of a recognized religious sect with religious objections to insurance, including Social Security and Medicare
•You’re incarcerated (either detained or jailed), and not being held pending disposition of charges
•You’re not lawfully present in the U.S.
www.healthcare.gov...
If any of the following circumstances apply to you, you may qualify for a “hardship” exemption from the penalty:
1.You were homeless
2.You were evicted in the past 6 months or were facing eviction or foreclosure
3.You received a shut-off notice from a utility company
4.You recently experienced domestic violence
5.You recently experienced the death of a close family member
6.You experienced a fire, flood, or other natural or human-caused disaster that caused substantial damage to your property
7.You filed for bankruptcy in the last 6 months
8.You had medical expenses you couldn’t pay in the last 24 months that resulted in substantial debt
9.You experienced unexpected increases in necessary expenses due to caring for an ill, disabled, or aging family member
10.You expect to claim a child as a tax dependent who’s been denied coverage in Medicaid and CHIP, and another person is required by court order to give medical support to the child. In this case, you don't have the pay the penalty for the child.
11.As a result of an eligibility appeals decision, you’re eligible for enrollment in a qualified health plan (QHP) through the Marketplace, lower costs on your monthly premiums, or cost-sharing reductions for a time period when you weren’t enrolled in a QHP through the Marketplace
12.You were determined ineligible for Medicaid because your state didn’t expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act
13.Your individual insurance plan was cancelled and you believe other Marketplace plans are unaffordable
14.You experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance
originally posted by: Elton
So now if you quit or lose your job and you take too long (3 mos) to find another that has benefits the government will penalize you?
Is a far cry from single payer, still feels like a gigantic gift to the corporations.
originally posted by: OrphanApology
a reply to: xuenchen
Ugh.
I think if I was single I'd just try and meet some foreign chick and emigrate somewhere besides the U.S. while I still have my dashing good looks.
I'm not single though so...I guess I'm going to have to figure out Obamacare. People are going to be the equivalent of enrolled agents after all this.