...this just sounds like a bad idea all over.
I know they really need to lower the deficit, but not everyone can afford health insurance. =_=;

For most people the penalty will be a "whopping" $95.00 a year! The minimum penalty/tax per person will start at $95.00 in 2014 (and then increase through 2016.)

No family will ever pay more than 3 times the per-person penalty, regardless of how many people are in the family. (

If you make less than $9.500 a year, you're exempt.

Considering people who don't have health insurance cost the rest of us billions in unpaid bills when they go to Emergency Rooms, don't pay their doctor bills etc, I think it's fair.

You have to buy insurance to drive a car, your health is even more important.

If you are very low income, you are eligible for Medicaid and ARE then insured.

The 95.00 a years penalty isn't going to break anyone. It may increase each year up to about $600.00 a family, but considering an Emergency Room visit costs a minimum of about $2,000.00 just to walk in the door that's NOTHING.

You have responsibilities for the benefit and rights of living in a Democracy.

I'm sick of people whining who have NO idea what they are whining about.

You can get a low cost, high deductible insurance plan for less than that eventual $600.00 per family, so it's probably not only a good idea to do so, but it will save you money in the long run,

NO ONE is going to be faced with "heavy" fines. If you're broke, not only are you exempt, but you get FREE Medicaid. NO ONE has anything to whine about.

If you can't afford health insurance then you should be eligible for Medicaid. Then, you're insured.

If you make less than $9,500.00 a year (and more each year with the rate of inflation) you are exempt from the tax.

Since when is $95.00 a "huge tax?

People should get their facts straight.

The entire healthcare industry needs an overhaul, from the ground up. Between medical programs that cost $$$$$$ of dollars to complete to charging $28 for a tylenol to malpractice rates...the entire system is tore up from the floor up.

I'm on my Dad's insurance until I am 26. (I'm 24 now..) Hopefully by the time I get booted off that I'll have Medicare through my SSD/SSI.

Thank you. I'm tired of people only hearing what the want to hear without researching all the facts.

Are you forgetting about those who own small businesses???? All the currently employed workers who will be "laid off" permanently once the businesses are fined?? I own two small businesses and do not have the income to afford health insurance--which varies from state to state, your current (rheumatoid arthritis among a few others), PAST HEALTH ISSUES--I had cancer-- AND make too much to qualify for Medicaid.

Medicaid also does NOT insure everyone. A person must fall within certain guidelines to be eligible for the coverage. Married women who are not pregnant--do NOT qualify. I have been turned down four times when I needed help with my medical issues.

I am not exempt--I am in a position to get triple the fine--then everyone will be paying my bills--I will be bankrupt, businessless and on welfare. Why??? I own 2 businesses, even though I am my own sole employee--and I am part of a household that has two small incomes.

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***The IRS penalty is either a fixed dollar amount, or a percentage of income above the filing threshold, whichever is greater. The law sets the fixed dollar penalty at $95 in 2014, $325 in 2015, $695 in 2016, and indexed to inflation thereafter (capped for a family at 300% of the individual amount).

The percentage of income penalty rises at a lower rate than the fixed dollar amount, from 1% in 2014, to 2% in 2015, and to 2.5% in 2016 and after, and then is capped at the national average premium for what’s called “bronze” coverage, which provides the least amount of coverage under the new law, 60% before the patient must chip in for co-insurance, deductibles and co-payments.

There’s more. Small businesses may get hit too. Less than half of small businesses insure workers, says a House Committee on small business. About 60% of America’s uninsured -- or 28 million -- are small business owners, workers, and their families, it says, adding insurance costs for small businesses have increased 129% since 2000.

Read more: link

That last line came of a tiny bit scathing actually (of course, this could just be me being overly sensitive, and if so I apologize for taking it the wrong way).

We're not exactly up on the latest news in our house so this was the first I'd heard of this and I wasn't aware Medicaid would count since the term "private insurance" threw me for a bit of a loop. Thankfully, that would (I think) make our household exempt.

But considering the rent for the average studio apartment around here costs around $1000 dollars a month (minus most utilities except hot water and occasionally heat) and the wait list for any low income housing is generally at least a year or two, what seems like a trivial tax to some could make the difference between paying bills or paying the tax for others.