healthcare and tax penalty

[heypeg]

I don't think the government should be able to force someone to buy health insurance. I have it but that is my choice.

[JaniceSW]

From what I understand, depending on income, there are subsidies or credits that you are eligible for under the Affordable Care Act.  When someone does not have health insurance and gets very ill, needing specialized treatment, medicines, and hospitalization, who do you think pays for it?  Someone has to absorb those costs, and they are in the form of taxes and increased insurance premiums for those of us who get insurance.  For those with jobs, employers pass along a percentage of those increased costs to their employees.   

[Dynamite2013]

I have health insurance but I was forced to do it because of the penalty. In the past I just paid what I owed hospitals and doctors. It is really a shame that people are forced to pay for something they can't afford like me.

[aggie49]

i do not have insurance because we can not afford it i got the exemption for last year and hope i get it this year my husband has it threw his job but they take 200 dollars from his check every 2 weeks and if he put me on it we wouldn;t have a check at all so i have my fingers crossed that they exement me bebauce if they dont all the chemo and surgery they just did i will be responsible for and i just dont have it

[hawkeye3210]

I have insurance, so it doesn't present a problem for me.  If everyone is suppose to have healthcare, what happens if they can't afford it?  Did anyone think of that?  I think its a bit ambiguous to expect all to have insurance.

You will be exempt from the penalty if the lowest cost of premiums is greater than 8% of your income.

[mrisha]

The politicians are trying to enforce the act of everyone have medical insurance, but they forgot that everyone can't afford to pay for insurance because they do not have a job or find one.  Are they going to give them a job in order to pay for said insurance?

[charmaine56]

my check is 420 a month and they wanted me to pay 540 for obama care. enough said.

[lguzman1]

Thank God I do, when you do your income tax they ask you if you had health insurance all year or part of the year and if not you get pinopolized. Wow

[Penwoir]

I do have health insurance through my husbands employer which works well for us. I do find it annoying that government is making it compulsory for every household to have health insurance, isn't it for the people to choose how they spend their money? I don't agree for it to be made compulsory even though I don't like that there are families that don't have insurance. I realise that when they are in a medical predicament they won't be able to pay but I don't think the answer is to tell them how to spend their money.

[hawkeye3210]

The politicians are trying to enforce the act of everyone have medical insurance, but they forgot that everyone can't afford to pay for insurance because they do not have a job or find one.  Are they going to give them a job in order to pay for said insurance?

As I stated before, you will be exempt from the penalty if the lowest cost of premiums is greater than 8% of your income. If you don't have a job, you wouldn't have any income and therefore not subject to any penalty. You'd also likely be eligible for medicaid.

[Tresbn00]

I have worked at least two jobs since I was fifteen and a half which has always left me with access to health insurance.  I have been blessed with good health so I have never really had to use it.  When I got married I went under my wife's health car plan. She has been at the same company for thirty five years.  We had the best, affordable insurance available until a few months before socialized health care ( I don't point directly at any one politician as being responsible as the current president's opposition was toting a similar socialized plan). Her company saw the cloud and increased the rates as well as reduced many people to exempt positions (took them off of full time status). Now the insurance is barely affordable.  My wife had cancer six years ago and requires quarterly visits to her oncologist. She has debated cutting those visits back to once a year because of the expense. That is her reward for sticking with a company for so long and my working hard at two jobs. On the bright/dark side, My stepbrother's wife was diagnosed with a rare cancer one month after the forced healthcare and a lot of their expenses have been covered.

[mrisha]

I don't like the idea that if you don't have medical insurance you will be fined.  Can you say convoluted.  What if people don't have a job and can't pay the premium every month?  Stupid set up.  Oxymoron.

[kimber62372]

I am a tax preparer for H&R Block and you have to pay the penalty if you do not have qualifying health insurance. You can go to healthcare.org to find affordable health care. The open enrollment is until February 15th, so act quick! That way next year you will not face a penalty for 2015. For 2014 you will be penalized 1% of your salary or $95 per tax payer or which ever is greater. 2015 the penalties will be 2% or $325 per tax payer and $2016 the penalties will be $2.5% or $695. So, please enroll now. It's cheaper than getting private health coverage.

[bowrunner]

ObamaCare is nothing but more power and control for the government.  It's final intention is to have everyone insured by the government and many will not be eligible for many treatments.  In my case I'm on Medicare and it will soon quit covering me for many things because of my age.

[SherylsShado]

I'll be paying the penalty, it's still cheaper than paying for "affordable health coverage" that covers nothing & has a deductible so high that it will never be used.