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OFF THE WIRE
by Ben Bullard
The Congressional Budget Office (CBO) has released the penalty schedule
for people who choose to remain uninsured once Obamacare takes effect,
revealing a punitive fee schedule that starts with a relatively low
dollar amount in 2014 and increases dramatically by the third full year
of implementation.
If you’re a
single adult who makes less than $10,000 a year, expect to pay $95 for
opting out of health care coverage in 2014. If you make more than that
and you’re single, you’ll pay one percent of your annual income above
the $10,000 filing threshold (the filing threshold bumps up to $20,000
for families.)
In other words, a single person earning $40,000
a year will have to pay a $300 penalty to opt out of coverage. A family
with a household income of $40,000 would be penalized $200 in 2014.
In 2015, the number ramps up to a flat $325 – or 2 percent of annual
income (whichever is greater). For 2016 and beyond, the penalty will be
the greater of $695 or 2.5 percent of annual income.
Those numbers are for single adults. Uninsured children are penalized at half the adult rate.
The penalties have an annual maximum. They can’t exceed the National
average premium that people will be paying to receive the so-called
“bronze” (i.e., cheapest) coverage plan offered by State-run insurance
exchanges. The catch is that even the bronze level of coverage is
expected to grow more expensive, with annual premiums forecast to reach
$5,000 for individual plans by 2016.
There are exemptions from
the penalties. But unless you’re an illegal alien, an American Indian
or earn so little that you don’t have to file a tax return, you’re
likely out of luck.
Unless, that is, you live in one of the
States with a Republican Governor who’s pledged not to expand the
Medicaid program as the Affordable Care Act prescribes. Ironically, poor
people in the holdout States will be exempt.
Filed Under: Liberty News, Staff Reports