With less than three weeks of open enrollment left, Covered California is working to highlight increased penalties for not having health insurance this year. Since its individual coverage requirement took effect in 2014, Obamacare has doled out increasingly expensive fines to people who do not purchase coverage through health exchanges or obtain insurance from an employer or a government program such as Medicare. This year brings the highest penalty yet, Peter Lee, Covered California's executive director, said during a news conference Wednesday. "This is real money going straight to the IRS, where the consumer gets nothing in return," Lee said.
