The Obama administration won’t yet say whether it will allow some uninsured Americans to enroll in Obamacare beyond the Feb. 15 deadline.
“We’re not making a decision on that,” a senior IRS official told reporters on Wednesday. “I think it would be a mistake for people to assume they have opportunities beyond February 15. We’ll deal with special considerations when we get past Feb. 15.”
Many uninsured Americans will file their taxes after mid-February, which under the current timeline is too late to sign up for plans in the healthcare law’s state-based insurance marketplaces. That will leave some consumers subject to a steep penalty next year for remaining uninsured, with little recourse.
About 150 million Americans are expected to file taxes this year. Most of those will have health coverage as the law requires and simply check a box on their tax form indicating so. Of the minority who are uninsured, some will qualify for an exemption.
The rest — an estimated two to four percent of all tax filers — will face a penalty for lacking coverage, said Mark Mazur, the Treasury’s assistant secretary for tax policy. Mazur joined Andy Slavitt, deputy administrator for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, and Kevin Counihan, CMS’s marketplace CEO, to discuss how the Affordable Care Act’s new requirements are affecting those filing taxes.
Another major challenge for the IRS this year is making sure people didn’t collect too many or too little income-based subsidies to buy health plans. If people collect more than they’re qualified for, they’ll have to pay some of it back, while others may find they’re owed more by the federal government.
Officials said it’s too early in the tax filing season to know how many Americans will fall into either category. But they don’t anticipate that subsidy paybacks will exceed the tax refund for most Americans.
“We don’t expect that the amount of settling up will exceed the refund for a very giant number of taxpayers,” said one senior IRS official.
