Obamacare will not offer a special open enrollment period for people who are going to be hit by the law’s penalty for not getting health insurance.
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A top administration official said Monday that uninsured people will not get extra time if they don’t sign up for Obamacare coverage by Jan. 31. The announcement comes after the administration extended the deadline last year to around the tax filing deadline of April 15.
“You could have to wait another year to get coverage and may have to pay the fee when you file your 2016 income taxes,” said Kevin Counihan, CEO of healthcare.gov.
Last year’s special enrollment period was for people who may not have known about the individual mandate penalty until they filed their taxes.
The penalty went into effect in 2014. Those who didn’t have any insurance coverage that year had to pay $95 per adult or 1 percent of household income, whichever amount was highest.
The special enrollment period was for people who fled their taxes and saw that they had to pay the 2014 penalty. They could then sign up for Obamacare to avoid paying the 2015 penalty.
That amount is much higher, with $325 per person or 2 percent of household income. The penalty rises again in 2016 to $695 or 2.5 percent.
There are exemptions for the penalty, such as low incomes.
So far more than 2 million people have enrolled in Obamacare, with the majority being people re-enrolling.
