Actually not.
You have three options:
One: Buy health insurance, which you already have anyway.
Two: Pay a penalty:
The advantage to paying the penalty is you can still buy insurance at some future date should you need it, even with a pre-existing condition.
Or, three, you can buy no insurance and pay no penalty:
Given these facts, therefore, one can clearly see no one is being ‘forced’ to buy insurance. The worst-case scenario is you lose part or all of an income tax return.
The IM is in essence a bluff, the government is betting enough consumers wonÂ’t call the bluff and buy insurance, the tiny percentage who actually decide to go without wonÂ’t have an adverse effect on the insurance pool.
And the primary focus of the ACA is to get low income individuals into an insurance program, in some cases a stateÂ’s Medicaid, for example.
As a legal aside, because the ACA authorizes no criminal or civil penalties, it doesnÂ’t meet the
Lopez/Morrison standard, and is consequently Constitutional.
So enjoy not having medical insurance to your heartÂ’s content.
Source for the cited above:
https://www.bcbsri.com/BCBSRIWeb/pdf/Individual_Mandate_Fact_Sheet.pdf
Incorrect. See:
“Individuals that fail to pay the penalty will not be subject to criminal penalties, liens or levies.”