4 million may face fine under health law
Penalties begin in ’14 on uninsured
WASHINGTON — Nearly 4 million Americans — the vast majority of them middle class — will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Obama’s health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released yesterday.
The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office reported.
Most of the people paying the fine will be middle class. Obama pledged in 2008 not to raise taxes on individuals making less than $200,000 a year and couples making less than $250,000.
Republicans have criticized the penalties, even though the idea for a mandate was proposed by the GOP in the 1990s and is part of the Massachusetts health care plan signed into law in 2006 by governor Mitt Romney, a Republican. Attorneys general in more than 12 states are working to challenge the mandate in federal court as unconstitutional.
“The individual mandate tax will fall hardest on Americans who can least afford to pay it, many of whom were promised subsidies by the Democrats and who the president has promised would not pay higher taxes,’’ said Representative Dave Camp of Michigan, the top Republican on the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.
Democrats argue the mandate and penalties are a necessary part of a massive overhaul designed to expand coverage to millions who lack it. They point out that getting young, healthy Americans in the insurance pool will reduce costs for others.
Americans who don’t get qualified health insurance will be required to pay penalties, starting in 2014, unless they are exempt because of their low income, their religious beliefs, or because they are members of American Indian tribes. The penalties will be fully phased in by 2016.
About 21 million nonelderly residents will be uninsured in 2016, according to projections by the CBO and the Joint Committee on Taxation. Most will be exempt from the penalties.
By 2016, those who must get insurance but don’t will be fined $695, or 2.5 percent of their household income, whichever is greater. After 2016, penalties will increase. People will not have to get coverage if the cheapest plan available costs more than 8 percent of their income.
About 3 million of those required to pay fines in 2016 will have incomes below $59,000 for individuals and $120,000 for families of four, according to the CBO projections. The other 900,000 people who must pay the fine will have higher incomes.
The government will collect about $4 billion a year in fines from 2017 through 2019, the report estimated.
