Tax overhaul law targets Obamacare provision, but what fallout?
The Republican-controlled
The repeal won't take effect until 2019, meaning people without insurance have one more tax year to decide whether to sign up for health coverage or pay the penalty, said
"That little portion of when it will be enforced escaped a lot of people's attention," he said.
Former President
But opponents of the mandate said it unfairly forced people to buy insurance or face a financial burden on their annual tax returns. The current penalty for not maintaining health insurance is
The elimination of the Obamacare tax mandate doesn't do away with the subsidies that allow millions of Americans to afford Affordable Care Act insurance. But analysts say the repeal of the mandate for coverage could complicate the chances of the program remaining financially viable. Republican leaders on
One irony of timing -- the Obamacare tax mandate was repealed less than a week after the most recent open enrollment period for coverage under the Affordable Care Act ended this past Friday. The enrollment period opened
Blue Cross Blue Shield Authorized Agent
"It was very busy, especially with renewals. The last week was the busiest," Thacker told
Thacker said that it's difficult to predict how the repeal of the Obamacare tax mandate will affect the number of people in the future who sign up for coverage.
"The people who don't want health insurance won't get it without the mandate. A lot of those people didn't get coverage anyway, even though it was mandatory. They preferred to pay the penalty, because for a lot of people the penalty was less than paying for the coverage," Thacker said.
Hild said that the elimination of the Obamacare tax mandate starting in 2019 could open up a new health insurance marketplace for limited coverage plans, which had been pushed to the sidelines under the Affordable Care Act requirement to meet certain health insurance guidelines.
Under Obamacare, if you had a limited benefit plan that didn't meet all the coverage benchmarks of the Affordable Care Act, you still had to pay the tax penalty on top of monthly premiums. Now that tax penalty will be eliminated, Hild said.
"There will be plans available that are non-ACA compliant because there are no penalties now if you buy that plan," Hild told The Enterprise. "Appearing on the horizon are going to be a lot of plans that we used to call indemnity plans."
For example, the limited benefit plans could pay a patient
"My guess is that we are going to see a lot of limited benefit plans," Hild said. "These plans won't be compliant with the standard of coverage under the ACA. But it won't matter because if you buy them you aren't facing a penalty anyway."
Hild's concern is that patients will buy limited benefit plans thinking the coverage is a safety net, not realizing what medical expenses they will have to absorb financially on their own.
"What's unfortunate is a lot of people won't think it through. They won't think about getting cancer or another serious illness, and the 'mini-med' plans will be worthless in that case," Hild said.
[email protected] -- 336-888-3528 -- @HPEpaul
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