A twofer:Chipping away at ObamaCare and lowering taxes.


Major Blow to Obamacare Mandate: IRS Won't Reject Tax Returns That Don't Answer Health Insurance Question
The tax agency has stopped requiring individual filers to indicate whether they maintained health coverage or paid the mandate penalty as required under the law
Peter Suderman|Feb. 14, 2017 9:44 pm

How much difference does a single line on a tax form make? For Obamacare's individual mandate, the answer might be quite a lot.

Following President Donald Trump's executive order instructing agencies to provide relief from the health law, the Internal Revenue Service appears to be taking a more lax approach to the coverage requirement.

The health law's individual mandate requires everyone to either maintain qualifying health coverage or pay a tax penalty, known as a "shared responsibility payment." The IRS was set to require filers to indicate whether they had maintained coverage in 2016 or paid the penalty by filling out line 61 on their form 1040s. Alternatively, they could claim exemption from the mandate by filing a form 8965.

For most filers, filling out line 61 would be mandatory. The IRS would not accept 1040s unless the coverage box was checked, or the shared responsibility payment noted, or the exemption form included. Otherwise they would be labeled "silent returns" and rejected.

Instead, however, filling out that line will be optional.

Earlier this month, the IRS quietly altered its rules to allow the submission of 1040s with nothing on line 61. The IRS says it still maintains the option to follow up with those who elect not to indicate their coverage status, although it's not clear what circumstances might trigger a follow up.

But what would have been a mandatory disclosure will instead be voluntary. Silent returns will no longer be automatically rejected. The change is a direct result of the executive order President Donald Trump issued in January directing the government to provide relief from Obamacare to individuals and insurers, within the boundaries of the law.

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http://reason.com/blog/2017/02/14/irs-bl...ividual-mandate

Quote: Cincinnatus wrote in post #3

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I have asked Liberals time and again, if ObamaCare is such a such a good thing, why do people have to be forced to join it? As a follow up, I have asked whether they think people are capable of deciding what is in their own best interests. Why is coercion required? I have yet to get a good answer.

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Quote: ThirstyMan wrote in post #2

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While DT has been unable so far to rally R support to repeal ACA he has done a number on it by simply making enforcement of the mandate more difficult, if not impossible.

The mandate was the Dem's attempt to force citizens into the program so they could brag about its enrollment!

ACA ignored the most basic premise of insurance by allowing people to wait until AFTER THEY'VE BECOME SICK to buy insurance coverage. The pre-existing conditions clause allowed this. And now, without the IRS enforcement of the mandate, ACA is DEAD!!! It no longer is insurance since there's no longer any risk penalty. The ratio of unhealthy to healthy will get incredibly worse now and ACA will fail due to its lack of healthy subscribers.

Without this sufficient ratio of healthy policyholders who pay into the pool BEFORE THEY BECOME ILL, the "risk pool" becomes grossly overpopulated with very sick people and grossly imbalanced.

Nobody will want to offer it anymore! And THIS will force Congress to act. The imbalance was bad already with the mandate penalty threat. Without the mandate penalty, ACA's costs will go even more sharply up, insurers will pull out and and the economics of ACA will become untenable.

Bye-bye Obamacare!

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