It's still hard to know when, and if, federal regulators will let Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act coverage mandate penalty provisions take effect.
If the Obama administration sticks with the PPACA interpretations it's announced so far, many consumers who fail to own what the government classifies as minimum essential coverage under Internal Revenue Code Section 5000A will have to pay a "shared responsibility" penalty equal to 1 percent of their income for the year.
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Internal Revenue Service have developed a long list of reasons taxpayers can use to qualify for "hardship exemptions" from the mandate penalty. Avenues for qualifying for a hardship exemption include going to prison, following a religion that objects to insurance, and joining a recognized health care sharing ministry.
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Allison Bell
Allison Bell, a senior reporter at ThinkAdvisor and BenefitsPRO, previously was an associate editor at National Underwriter Life & Health. She has a bachelor's degree in economics from Washington University in St. Louis and a master's degree in journalism from the Medill School of Journalism at Northwestern University. She can be reached through X at @Think_Allison.
