Health Insurance Penalties

Many individuals are concerned about The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act because there have been reports that health insurance penalties are included in the new health care reform bill. It is true that the Internal Revenue Services is unable to levy taxes, seizures, or criminal jail time for failure to enroll in an affordable health insurance plan over the next few years.

One of the issues the Internal Revenue Service is dealing with though is withholding any annual refunds to taxpayers who do not show on their W-2 form a cost for the annual health insurance policy they are currently enrolled. Of course, the Internal Revenue Service remain unsure at this time how they will sanction those individuals who do not expect a refund after filing their Form 1040, Form 1040EZ or other pertinent tax forms.

The Internal Revenue can issues fines of up to two percent of an individual’s annual income for failure of purchasing even a low cost health insurance, but there is another problem with this approach. The Internal Revenue Service can, at any time, request copies of your medical records from your medical health care physician.

Once they have reviewed your person medical records and matched it to a low cost health insurance that you chose to enroll, they may have something to say. When they believe you are not enrolled in an affordable health insurance policy that will accommodate your medical health care needs, they can mandate you purchase a health insurance policy of their choice.

Regardless of whether you are able to afford the health insurance policy the Internal Revenue Service mandates you purchase, they will hold you to the mandate. When you default on the mandated health insurance policy chosen by the Internal Revenue Service, they will send you a fine for failure of compliance.

When you refuse to pay the tax penalties for failure to purchase an affordable health insurance mandated through the Internal Revenue Service, this is when you will be facing time in prison. To get back to the original question, can you be facing jail time for failure to purchase a mandated health insurance policy? No, you will not be facing jail time for failure to purchase a mandated health insurance policy.

You will be facing jail time for failure to pay an Internal Revenue Service mandated tax penalty in its place. Of course, this all falls under what the Internal Revenue Service and the health insurance provider deems acceptable health insurance for a specific individual.