ACA – The Individual Mandate Does Not Exist

This is from Sarah Ferris writing at The Hill last week:

Nearly three in four people who lacked health insurance last year were exempt from the penalty under ObamaCare, according to data from the tax-filing software TurboTax.

A total of 70 percent of people filed an exemption to ObamaCare’s individual mandate, about the same figure as last year, according to TurboTax.

The two most common exemptions were related to the cost of coverage. Many people without coverage said they couldn’t afford healthcare plans in their area or couldn’t afford plans through their workplace.

The other common exemptions were related to a recent eviction or the death of a family member.

The number of people seeking cost-related exemptions poses a challenge to the Obama administration, which has made affordability a central part of its strategy to reduce the uninsured.

But it also signals that more uninsured people may be learning about exemptions from the hefty penalty.

“The IRS reported that about 300,000 people who paid the penalty likely qualified for an exemption last year,” said Debra Hammer, TurboTax ACA spokeswoman. …

This is from Investor’s Business Daily:

President Obama described ObamaCare as a great product. So why did one in four of those who signed up in 2015 cancel their plans?

An official report released last Friday said that enrollment in the ObamaCare exchanges fell to 8.8 million by the end of the year, from 11.7 million who’d initially signed up. That’s a 25% decline.

About 1.5 million who signed up never paid their first premium, so the number of actual enrollees dropped to 10.2 million by the end of March 2015. Then another 1.1 million canceled their coverage in the last six months of the year, according to an analysis by the Mercatus Center‘s Brian Blase. Half a million got booted off because they couldn’t verify citizenship or immigration status.

There’s been no solid research to why so many canceled their ObamaCare plans before the year was out, but it’s not hard to make educated guesses.

For many, ObamaCare just isn’t worth it, even for many of the 84% who get insurance subsidies. The plans typically feature sky-high deductibles. …

There’s also a built-in incentive to cancel plans before year is out because of ObamaCare’s 90-day grace period, which lets people getting subsidies keep coverage for three months if they stop paying premiums. …

Then there are those who’ve learned to game the system — buying insurance midyear when they have big health care expenses, and then dropping it once the bills are paid. …

See also: Obamacare Losing Enrollees: Exchange Enrollment Drops By Over 1.1 Million In Last Half Of 2015 by Brian Blase writing at Forbes and stating, in part, “the exchange risk pools contain a disproportionate number of older and less healthy people. Because of the ACA’s regulations and price controls, insurers needed to enroll a large number of younger and healthier people to offset losses incurred on older and sicker enrollees. In 2014 and 2015, insurers took steep losses—largely because the desired risk pool did not materialize. Younger and healthier people are making an economically rational decision and foregoing exchange coverage.”

Effective April 1, 2016, the new California regulations include a requirement to develop a harassment, discrimination and retaliation prevention policy (meeting detailed requirements), new record keeping requirements for supervisor harassment/abusive conduct prevention trainings, restrictions on employee driver’s license requirements, and a new mandatory employer notice of pregnancy disability rights.

Employer Obligations