Posted on 10/26/2016 9:11:36 PM PDT by nickcarraway
The architects of the Affordable Care Act thought they had a blunt instrument to force people — even young and healthy ones — to buy insurance through the law’s online marketplaces: a tax penalty for those who remain uninsured.
It has not worked all that well, and that is at least partly to blame for soaring premiums next year on some of the health law’s insurance exchanges.
The full weight of the penalty will not be felt until April, when those who have avoided buying insurance will face penalties of around $700 a person or more. But even then that might not be enough: For the young and healthy who are badly needed to make the exchanges work, it is sometimes cheaper to pay the Internal Revenue Service than an insurance company charging large premiums, with huge deductibles.
“In my experience, the penalty has not been large enough to motivate people to sign up for insurance,” said Christine Speidel, a tax lawyer at Vermont Legal Aid.
Some people do sign up, especially those with low incomes who receive the most generous subsidies, Ms. Speidel said. But others, she said, find that they cannot afford insurance, even with subsidies, so “they grudgingly take the penalty.”
The I.R.S. says that 8.1 million returns included penalty payments for people who went without insurance in 2014, the first year in which most people were required to have coverage. A preliminary report on the latest tax-filing season, tabulating data through April, said that 5.6 million returns included penalties averaging $442 a return for people uninsured in 2015.
With the health law’s fourth open-enrollment season beginning Tuesday, consumers are anxiously weighing their options.
(Excerpt) Read more at nytimes.com ...
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But on medical care, the GOP has been completely absent.
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This is one subject the GOP should shut up about.
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GOP needs to say how they would improve things. Not simply criticize Obamacare.
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How would we do it better?
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How about those of us who despise the gop. Can we criticize Obamacare?
You must be referring to Cigna. I took that one because of the out of country provision. I spend time in Viet Nam and that 50 thou goes a long way there and I do have access to high quality medicine at the French hospital in Nha Trang which is world class.
With less than 2 weeks before the election, I don't give a F who criticizes them for it. Just like I don't give a F who yells 'Bill Clinton is a rapist' at media events and public settings - just as long as it gets done.
People can (and should) defer the “penalties” by adjusting down withholdings and if anything owing the fed a little something. But that will only work until they change the law. Which of course they’re going to do.
What a catastrophe. Every bit as bad as we all knew it would be, exactly as our side predicted. Same outcome extends to all such policy debates in due course, a time-proved truism the media works tirelessly, scrupulously, to obscure from the masses.
>> But on medical care, the GOP has been completely absent.
>> Nowhere. At all.
>> Come up with a better idea. Until you do, just do not say a single word.
Spare us your ignorant indignation.
For decades, litigation reform, HSAs, and inter-state competition have been ongoing battles against the commie Democrats.
any wikileaks on roberts yet? lest we forget, pelosi knew how he was going to vote.
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You can avoid the tax by joining one of the Christian health sharing Ministries.
I’m not a member of the gop. I don’t much care what Paul Ryan and his brand of establishment cronies have to say.
Why does the government have to be involved in our healthcare at all?
Don't be absurd. One record keeper at an office takes care of hundreds if not thousands of patients records. Spreading their salary over those numbers doesn't have the effect you claim.
The real reason for high care costs is that insurance companies exist. They negotiate the price and simply pass on the cost.
I received a $24K bill for a 45 minute procedure on a kidney stone. That is not what was paid int the end. But, who in their right mind can justify that kind of money for that time?
The gov’t has NO business being involved at all. It is not about healthcare. It is about POWER and CONTROL over the lives of their “subjects”. IOW, tyranny.
yet we have trolls here saying Republicans cant complain about obamacare because they offered no alternative ...ugh
Indeed. They are so far from reality it makes one wonder where to begin in response, and if it is a productive use of time to even try. The ignorance of the populace enables the advancement of tyranny.
Further down in the article, they mention over 12M people received a hardship waiver and didn’t have to pay a penalty. With these whopping premium increases, more people will be able to take the 8% hardship waiver.
Had some physical therapy on a shoulder earlier this year. The list price was $600 per hour, the negotiated price was $320 per hour. My copay was $60 per hour. I figure my copay covered the salary of the therapist and the rest went for overhead and profit at the therapy center and insurance company.
> GOP needs to say how they would improve things. Not simply criticize Obamacare.
I totally agree.
It’s been 7 years.
We knew this was coming.
Show us the “replacement” we’ve been hearing about or shut up and fix what we have.
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