Some Democrats want a longer Obamacare enrollment period for people who will be fined if they don’t get covered.
The Obama administration should give people an additional 60 days to sign up once they file their 2014 tax returns, Reps. Sander Levin of Michigan, Jim McDermott of Washington and Lloyd Doggett of Texas said Monday. Sunday was the deadline to sign up for health plans on healthcare.gov, although some people have one more week to complete their application.
Ten Senate Democrats have made the same request to the administration. Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and other senators wrote to Health and Human Services Secretary Sylvia Mathews Burwell on Friday asking for a longer enrollment period for the uninsured.
The Democrats are echoing a position taken by tax preparation firms and even some left-leaning groups, who say it would make more sense to extend the enrollment period until Tax Day on April 15. When uninsured people file their taxes, they’ll be told they’ll have to pay a penalty next year for lacking coverage. Except that now it’s too late to sign up in order to avoid that fine, also called a Shared Responsibility Payment by some.
“The … enrollment period ended before many Americans filed their taxes,” McDermott said in a statement. “Without a special enrollment period, many people making a Shared Responsibility Payment won’t have another opportunity to get health coverage this year.”
Families USA, a consumer advocacy group that supports the 2010 health care law, has also asked the administration to align enrollment with tax filing season. Doggett wrote to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services in December asking for a special enrollment period for people who would be subject to the fine.
“For the many families who may now be about to pay a penalty, there should be an opportunity to avoid both further penalties and to obtain affordable health insurance,” Doggett said.
The health care law’s requirement to buy insurance went into effect in 2014, so the uninsured will pay a fine for the first time this year as they file their taxes. This year the fine equals $95 or 1 percent of an individual’s income, whichever is greater. Between 3 million and 6 million taxpayers will pay the fine this year, according to estimates by the Treasury Department.
