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Chris Wysocki
Caldwell, NJ

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Thursday, 07 August 2014

Dude, where's my exemption? 90% of the uninsured are now exempt from Obamacare penalties

It seems like everybody is exempt from Obamacare, except me.

Today comes the breathtaking news that 90% of the remaining uninsured are exempt from paying the individual mandate tax penalty.

Almost 90% of the nation's 30 million uninsured won't pay a penalty under the Affordable Care Act in 2016 because of a growing batch of exemptions to the health-coverage requirement.

The architects of the health law wanted most Americans to carry insurance or pay a penalty. But an analysis by the Congressional Budget Office and the Joint Committee on Taxation said most of the uninsured will qualify for one or more exemptions.

Remember when John Roberts twisted the Constitution by deciding Obamacare was a "tax?"

Well, the joke's on him. It's a "tax" that virtually nobody has to pay.

The Obama administration has provided 14 ways people can avoid the fine based on hardships, including suffering domestic violence, experiencing substantial property damage from a fire or flood, and having a canceled insurance plan. Those come on top of exemptions carved out under the 2010 law for groups including illegal immigrants, members of Native American tribes and certain religious sects.

Factoring in the new exemptions, the congressional report in June lowered the number of people it expects to pay the fine in 2016 to four million, from its previous projection of six million. Also bringing down the total: At least 21 states have opted not to expand the Medicaid insurance program for lower earners under the health law, and those residents may be exempt from the penalty.

Dear Anybody Paying The Fine: You're a schmuck.

"If your pajamas don't fit well, you don't need health insurance," said Douglas Holtz-Eakin, former director of the Congressional Budget Office and president of the American Action Forum, a conservative think tank. "It basically waives the individual mandate."

Yup, the catch-all exemption is "hardship."

In December, a hardship application form was released that laid out the 14 exemptions. Among other things, people could avoid the penalty if a close family member had died recently, if they were facing eviction or if they had medical expenses that couldn't be paid in the last 24 months and resulted in substantial debt.

Critics have assailed one exemption for people who "experienced another hardship obtaining health insurance" as too broad. That exemption asks for documentation if possible but doesn't require it.

Hey, I "experienced hardship obtaining health insurance!" Aetna raised our rates so high we were forced into buying a craptacular Oxford plan which is still about 20% more expensive that what we paid last year. The renewal forms should be here in another month or so, I can't wait to see what next year's premium increase will look like. Because single guys paying for maternity and pediatric dental coverage is the epitome of fairness, or something.

And spare me the whole "cost sharing" nonsense. If cost sharing was actually the goal, there wouldn't be so many damn exemptions from having to actually share some costs.

Nope, Obamacare was, and is, all about vote-buying. Exemptions exist because otherwise Democrats would have already gotten creamed in 2012, and the idea now is to soften their looming chances of losing the Senate in November. If people had to pay the true cost of Obamacare nobody would vote for Obama's duplicious cronies.

The only thing Democrats care about is Power. They've got it, and they'll do anything to keep it. You? Me? America? We're, in the candid words of Nancy Pelosi, insignificant.

Posted at 16:41 by Chris Wysocki [/obamacare] Comments | Perm Link |
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