8.1 Million Paid Obamacare Penalties in 2014 According to IRS Study

The most recent study released from the Internal Revenue Service reveals that almost 8.1 million taxpayers paid almost $1.7 Billion in Obamacare penalties in 2014.

“Beginning in 2014, the Affordable Care Act required that individuals must have had health care coverage, qualified for a health coverage exemption, or made a shared responsibility payment with a tax return,” wrote the IRS in the report. “A health care individual responsibility payment was made on 8.1 million returns for $1.7 Billion, an average of $210 per tax return paying this penalty.” 

This is much more than the original estimate. John Koshinen, the IRS Commissioner, said in 2015 that the agency projected that roughly 7.5 million taxpayers paid a total of $1.5 billion in penalties in 2014.

“It’s not surprising that the Obamacare mandate numbers are worse than the administration first claimed. Obamacare penalizes taxpayers who can no longer afford insurance that Obamacare made unaffordable,” said Sen. Tom Cotton (R., Ark.)

In 2014, the flat penalty was $95 for each uninsured adult or 1% of their household’s adjusted gross income in excess of the threshold for mandatory tax filing, depending on which was higher. In 2016, the penalty rose to a flat fee of $695 or 2.5% of the AGI measure. This means 2016’s penalties total will be much higher.

“If the final stats for 2016 reflect a similar increase after April due to filings past the initial deadline, that would mean Obamacare individual mandate payments on 6.8 million tax forms in 2016, averaging $489. Some share of those tax returns will include fines for more than one adult or a parent and child, just as Obamacare exchange applications often seek coverage for more than one individual. A conservative estimate of less than 1.2 penalties per return yields a rough estimate of 8 million people paying the fine this year,” writes investor.com. 

“As Obamacare continues to unravel, things will only get worse,” said Cotton. “The legacy of Obamacare is skyrocketing premiums, unaffordable deductibles, the destruction of the individual insurance market, and tax penalties on Obamacare’s victims.”

In July, Sen. Cotton and five other senators introduced the Obamacare Tax Relief and Consumer Choice Act, which wouldn’t permit individuals to pay the penalty if there was an increase in health insurance premiums on their state’s exchange by 10% or more or if they could not afford deductibles under ObamaCare’s current guidelines of affordability.  

As premiums continue to rise, the healthcare.gov options are becoming less affordable, forcing people to turn down coverage.

“On average, the cheapest bronze coverage this year costs $930, or nearly 4% of income, for 28-year-olds earning $24,000 a year, just over 200% of the poverty level. For someone of modest means, that’s a lot to spend for a plan that won’t cover much before the deductible is met. Many of the cheapest bronze plans will carry the maximum Obamacare deductible of $7,150 in 2017,” writes investor.com. “That’s why many people may end up turning down coverage that’s not much more than next year’s mandate penalty of at least $695 per adult in 2017, up from a minimum of $325 this year.” 

Add the findings in this study to the long list of Obamacare disappointments.