Saturday, January 3, 2015

Small penalty coming for ObamaCare but wait 'til '16

1/3/2015


Beginning this April, most people living in the U.S. without health insurance will face a tax penalty. 

The Affordable Care Act requires virtually all Americans carry some form of health insurance. Those who can afford it but choose not to buy it must pay a fee, sometimes called a penalty, fine, 'individual responsibility payment' or individual mandate.

"It's a relatively small penalty," says Yevgeniy Feyman of the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research. "For not having coverage in 2014, it's going to be the greater of one percent of the yearly household income above the filing threshold, which was capped at the national average premium for a bronze plan, or $95 per person for the year, where it's capped at $285 per family."


Meanwhile, Healthcare.gov points out that the penalty increases ever year.
By 2016, Feyman points out, it hits 2.5 percent of income or $695 per person.

"That becomes quite a bit more challenging," he says of the coming rate hike. "But it's also more important to remember premiums will go up by then, too, and likely by more than just the two percent annual increase we saw for 2015 plans."


source

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