After all the debate and passion over President Obama’s healthcare reform plan (now a law), there’s one important question about it: Who is supposed to have health insurance?
The answer is: Practically everyone must get healthcare.
Here are more details on this particular aspect of the health care reform:
You should at least get minimal coverage. You can get your coverage through your employers or through “exchanges” that will be set up so people will have options for lower-cost coverage.
There are penalties if you don’t get coverage. If you don’t get insurance, the health care reform bill will make you pay a fee beginning in the year 2014, and the fee will be at the standard level by 2016. The penalty will be worth $695 for each uninsured family member every year (up to a maximum of $2,085), or 2.5% of the whole household’s income – depending on which figure is higher.
The only ones who won’t be penalized will be American Indians, illegal immigrants, the imprisoned and people who may have religious objections.
Why it is mandatory
Some quarters have observed that this mandatory insurance coverage will make up for the business losses that insurance companies will experience, since they cannot deny people who have pre-existing conditions anymore. Some even say it will boost income for the insurance companies, as it will require young and healthy people to enroll anyway, people who don’t need healthcare coverage yet.
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