McCaughey: Americans 'Facing Big Fines If They Don
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By Susan Jones
December 18, 2014
It won't be a happy new year for people without health insurance, says Obamacare analyst Betsy McCaughey, the former lieutenant governor of New York:
"In fact, this coming year, Americans are facing big fines if they don't have insurance -- two percent of their adjusted gross income, with additional fines for your spouse and each of your kids," McCaughey told Fox News's Neil Cavuto on Wednesday.
"So, many, many families are going to be paying thousands of dollars for the privilege of not being insured, or they can fill out form 8966 to try to get an exemption. The instructions to fill out that form are 12 pages long. So, good luck getting that done."
McCaughey said a single individual earning $50,000 a year would pay a $1,000 penalty, for example. But a married person would also pay additional penalties for his or her uninsured, nonworking spouse and each child.
VIDEO: (Click on link below to view)
McCaughey said the process of trying to get an exemption will be "complicated" and "painful for plenty of Americans."
Not only will uninsured Americans be penalized, but Democrats may feel the pain as well, since they are the ones who passed the bill without a single Republican vote:
"It will have an impact on the 2016 election," McCaughey told Cavuto. "In fact, the more Obamacare pain Americans feel, the worse it's going to be for Democrats in 2016, especially Hillary Clinton."
Mrs. Clinton unsuccessfully tried to push through her own version of government-mandated health insurance in 1993. "So when people reexamine what Hillary Clinton was proposing, they are going to think twice, three times or more about electing her president," McCaughey predicted.
Under the Affordable Care Act, Americans who go without health insurance must make a "shared responsibility payment" with their federal tax return, beginning in 2014.
This year, the penalty is $95 per person, or 1 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater.
As McCaughey noted, the penalty (tax) rises in 2015 to the greater of $325 or 2 percent of taxable income; and it rises again in 2016, to $695 or 2.5 percent of taxable income, whichever is greater.
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/susan-jones/m...-insurance

