The looming April 15 deadline for Obamacare’s penalty for not getting health insurance prompted “substantial” enrollment surges in some state-run exchanges.
Officials with state-run health insurance exchanges in New York, California, Washington and Kentucky said during a Wednesday call with reporters that the tax penalty appeared to play a role in open enrollment signups, which ended Sunday. A preliminary total of 11.4 million people signed up for healthcare nationwide through either healthcare.gov or the 14 state-run exchanges.
While declining to say how many signups were a direct result of the law’s tax penalty, exchange directors said the penalty was definitely a factor.
“One of the reasons we had substantial enrollment is individuals discovering the potential tax penalty and literally walking across the street to our enrollment centers,” said Peter Lee, director of California’s state healthcare exchange, which had 1.4 million people sign up or renew coverage.
The penalty was also driving “Kentuckians to apply for coverage,” said Nicole Comeaux, deputy executive director of the state’s exchange, which had 27,000 signups.
“We hear that some people learning of the possibility for [a] federal income tax penalty increased awareness or drove them but don’t have statistical data,” added the director of New York’s exchange, Donna Frescatore. The state exchange signed up 553,000 new people during open enrollment.
Call centers and agents in Washington state also heard reports of people becoming aware of the penalty and deciding to enroll, exchange CEO Richard K. Onizuka said.
Eligible people who refuse to get insurance will have to pay a penalty under the Affordable Care Act’s individual mandate that everyone have some type of health insurance. While the penalty went into effect last year, this is the first year people will pay the penalty as they are filing 2014 tax returns.
If you didn’t have coverage in 2014, the fee is 1 percent of yearly income or $95 per person, according to healthcare.gov. If you don’t get health insurance coverage this year, the fee is either two percent of yearly household income or $325 per person, whichever is greater.
People can receive an exemption if they have various hardships such as filing for bankruptcy or facing eviction or foreclosure.
Administration officials did not return a request for comment on how many signups for healthcare.gov were motivated by the tax penalty.
The administration has reached out to tax preparers such as Jackson Hewitt, H&R Block and TurboTax on how to help tax filers pay the penalty, according to Kevin Counihan, CEO of healthcare.gov, during a call with reporters.
Democratic lawmakers and liberal groups such as Families USA have urged the administration to push back the open enrollment period until Tax Day, April 15. That would give people subject to the penalty enough time to sign up, especially those that don’t know they have to pay a penalty.
Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell has said she will announce a decision on special enrollment periods by the end of this month.
