Obamacare Tax Penalty vs. Obamacare Benefit?

[duane1969]

Just curious if anyone is hearing much from tax people or in general regarding who has gotten health care thanks to Obamacare versus who is paying penalties. When I did my taxes with H&R last week the subject came up so I asked my tax preparer how many she had taken penalties out of their returns and she said several dozen and then elaborated that she only had one person tell her that the exchange had helped him get health care.

I read a few months ago that millions of people were expected to have to pay back some money because they overestimated how much they would earn in 2014 and had gotten a larger credit than they earned in 2013. I have not heard anything on how many are expected to have to actually pay the penalty.

[sanfran22]

Just about everyone at my wifes workplace that didn't have healtcare took the penalty. The people she spoke to said it was cheaper and the healthcare didn't cover much anyway.
Like I said from the beginning, it was never intended to provide healthcare. It was created to destroy the system and usher in full gov't control.

[jlzinck]

In the last 2 years I have had 2 of my clients pay the "penalty"
#1 was a young lady who was uninsured for 8 months until she started a full time job.
Her penalty was $86. Now she didn't make a whole lot that year.

Then last year (For tax year 2013) I had a couple where the wife was laid off in January and the Insurance went through the end of March. Her husband worked for a construction company that didn't offer insurance and she was unemployed for the rest of the year. Their penalty was over $2,000. This was only for Massachusetts because the federal law was not in place yet