Hacker News Reader

No, it requires them to pay a fine if they don't have health insurance (see https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-someone-doesnt-have-healt...).

The amount of the fine is fairly modest compared to the cost of most health insurance plans, though, so the worry is that 18-34s will choose to just pay the fine instead of joining the insurance risk pool.

View on HN

Not a fine of course, but a "tax". A fine would be unconstitutional. My state rejected expanded medicaid, which leaves anyone in that gap between ~$2k and ~$11k with the option of paying the penalty tax or just stop working. There's a lot of the 18-30 year olds in that income bracket here.

There are a whole host of exemptions from the tax, including:

"You were determined ineligible for Medicaid because your state didn’t expand eligibility for Medicaid under the Affordable Care Act."

https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions/

Thanks for that! I was unaware of that exemption, apparently that was added in Jun 13. It doesn't seem to be a widely published exemption.

You're welcome! I have friends in college who would've qualified for expanded Medicaid but my state didn't expand either. They were talking about this exemption which is how I learned of it.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com