What Happens If I Don’t Have Health Insurance?
According to the Affordable Care Act, you should have a health insurance plan unless you meet requirements that exempt you from it. In case you don’t meet the criteria, you will have to pay a fine with the taxes that you pay per annum.
The fine for the new law was low in 2014, but it is constantly hiking up with each passing year. The government calculates the amount you owe them in two ways and you have to pay the higher amount. Have a look at the fee structure for the previous years and for 2016:
2014
The fee for 2014 was $47.50 for each child and $95 for each adult, but the aggregate amount per family was not more than $285. Another way of calculating the fine was calculating the sum that you would get after extracting 1% of the taxable income per annum.
2015
The amount increased in 2015 as the fee for each child was $162.50 and $325 for each adult. The aggregate amount per family was not more than $975 or 2% of the taxable income of the family per annum.
2016
The amount further increased in 2016 as the fee for each child was $347.50 and $695 for each adult. The aggregate amount per family was not more than $2085 or 2.5% of the taxable income of the family per annum.
How to Avoid This
The only way to avoid this is to get an insurance plan. You should not assume that you are not eligible for one because the government provides financial help in the form of subsidy or tax credit. The only people who are exempted from getting a health insurance are:
- Members of Indian tribes
- People in prison
- People that have an income that is below the poverty line
- People who have religious tenets that includes healthy insurance
- People whose insurance cost is exceeding 8% of their total monthly income
Learning about Hardship Exemption
There are 14 criteria that qualify you for hardship exemption. Some of them are:
- You are homeless
- You are bankrupt
- Your home was damaged due to a natural disaster
- You experienced death of a family member
Want to learn more about how you can avoid tax penalties? Or learn about the plans offered by Oxford health insurance in NY and Aetna health insurance in NY? Give us a call at (718)-878-6484 today to get started!
