Despite GOP repeal, uninsured Pennsylvanians will face tax penalty in 2018
Sen. Pat Toomey, R-Pa., a member of the tax-writing Senate Finance Committee, and other Republican senators gather to meet with Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., on the GOP effort to overhaul the tax code, on Capitol Hill in Washington, Friday, Dec. 1, 2017. (AP Photo/J. Scott Applewhite)
The GOP’s federal tax overhaul includes a provision to end the Affordable Healthcare Act’s individual mandate.
The individual mandate requires people to have health insurance or face a tax penalty.
Though the tax plan has passed the senate, State Department of Insurance spokeswoman Jessica Altman says people who go uninsured in 2018 will face a penalty. That’s because the repeal won’t take effect until 2019.
Altman says, the confusion is just one of the challenges those who use the exchange are facing this year. “There’s just a lot of uncertainty, and a feeling that the federal government is not committed to making this work, and certainly for consumers who need coverage, that is really stressful for them.”
The move to repeal the individual mandate is widely seen as an effort to weaken the Affordable Care Act following the GOP’s failed efforts to repeal the ACA through legislation. President Donald Trump also cut the cost sharing reduction, a subsidy that makes insurance more affordable for lower income Americans.
According to the Congressional Budget Office, cutting the individual mandate will lead to 13 milliorn more uninsured Americans by 2027.
Altman says, this year, it’s still too early to tell whether efforts to weaken the ACA have had an effect on enrollment. So far, at least 150,000 Pennsylvanians have signed up for insurance on the ACA exchange. Last year, the final number in the state was 426,000.
Open enrollment ends Dec. 15.
Brett Sholtis was a health reporter for WITF/Transforming Health until early 2023. Sholtis is the 2021-2022 Reveal Benjamin von Sternenfels Rosenthal Grantee for Mental Health Investigative Journalism with the Rosalynn Carter Fellowships for Mental Health Journalism. His award-winning work on problem areas in mental health policy and policing helped to get a woman moved from a county jail to a psychiatric facility. Sholtis is a University of Pittsburgh graduate and a Pennsylvania Army National Guard Kosovo campaign veteran.
