Tax season brought a surprise to several million people who were uninsured for part or all of 2014. A minimum of $95 was charged to citizens who failed to either enroll in Obamacare or have private health insurance through an employer or individual policy. According to Foxnews.com article, “New Obamacare window opens for those who owe federal fines for being uninsured” published on March 15, 2015, that minimum will increase to $325 for 2015. H&R Block reports that the fines average about $170 for their affected customers. The people the law was inteded to help, low to middle income workers without employer insurance or self employed workers, are the very people being penelized by the law. For individuals wishing to avoid the even stiffer penalities for 2015, open enrollement for Obamacare has been set to reopen on March 15, 2015 and extend through April 30, 2015. Open enrollment was closed on Feburary 15, 2015 but many citizens were not even aware of the timeline, much less stiffer penalities, for enrollment. There are guidelines that must be met to qualify for this extended open enrollment such as not being aware of the previous deadline, and have paid, or owe, a penalty for 2014. Tax preparers, as well as some public policy experts, have made recommendations to the government to run the enrollment of Obamacare with tax season. Tax preparers are informing customers who paid a penalty for 2014 about the second chance to gain coverage. H&R Block is reporting that the penalty is getting people’s attention.
Roughly 8 million people signed up for Obamacare in 2014. The spending on healthcare and physicians that followed 2014’s open enrollement accounted for $43.3 billion in spending. Predictions held true that Obamacare would boost the economy. It would stand to reason that 2015 will see the same economic boost, and possibly even more, with open