WASHINGTON - Some Maine tax filers may discover they're taking a hit this year for failing to sign up for health insurance in 2014. It's the first year that consumers are held accountable to the Affordable Care Act's individual mandate.And if the uninsured want to avoid getting hit with another, steeper penalty next year? It's too late - because open enrollment for 2015 coverage closed Sunday. Maine independent Sen. Angus King wants to change that. He's one of several members of Congress who are urging the Obama administration to create a special enrollment period to give consumers a second chance.
It's still early as far as tax filing season goes, so Leslie Poake of Bangor accounting firm Loiselle Goodwin and Hinds says she's only seen a trickle of tax returns in which a client owes a penalty for not signing up for insurance. But she expects to see more, and she doesn't relish being the messenger.
"People aren't coming to their accountant expecting that we're going to be suddenly enforcing health insurance laws," she says. "While that's not really what we're doing, we are calculating a penalty in some cases and putting it on their tax return, and then we're in the position to have to explain that penalty to them."
A statewide coalition that offers free tax help - CA$H Maine - sought to soften the blow by staffing its clinics with enrollment specialists to help people sign up for insurance to avoid a penalty next year.
But financial wellness specialist Ali Al Dhamen of Goodwill of Northern New England says now that open enrollment is over, "it is a little worrisome, because tonight will be our first tax night after the deadline. And when people see that penalty, it's going to be hard to tell them you're going to get twice that penalty next year, and there's not a whole lot they can do about it at this point."
It's a health insurance Catch-22, says independent Sen. Angus King. That's why he and 10 Democratic lawmakers sent a letter to the Department of Health and Human Services last week to ask for a special enrollment period for the uninsured who paid a 2014 tax penalty, but missed the open enrollment period for 2015.
"There are a number of people, according to polling and the data analysis who, A, aren't aware of the penalty for not enrolling, and B, weren't aware of the deadline, which just passed," King says. "And, basically, what we're asking for is a fairly small accommodation."
The penalty for not enrolling in insurance for 2014 is $95 per adult and half that per child, or 1 percent of household income - whichever is higher. In 2015, it bumps up to $325 dollars per adult, or 2 percent of household income, again - whichever is higher.
Maine-based-health policy consultant Mitchell Stein says the numbers add up quickly - for a family of four, the minimum penalty next year is $975. "It makes it even more important that we give those folks an opportunity to avoid those 2015 penalties, once they see they've been assessed a 2014 penalty," Stein says.
Despite Maine's high enrollment figures - more than 66,000 in early February - and the fact that very poor individuals are exempt from the insurance mandate, Stein says there are still likely tens of thousands who will owe penalties.
Emily Brostek of Consumers for Affordable Health Care says there should be some leeway, especially since the law is still relatively new. "You know, the point of the ACA isn't to penalize people or to punish people, it's to get people covered," she says.
Accountant Leslie Poake says any flexibility would help. "I've said since this legislation came out that you're not going to hear the uproar and not going to hear the backlash until we get through tax season," Poake says, "because this is when people are going to say, 'Oh, you mean I have to pay?' "
Sen. King says he hasn't heard a response from the Obama administration about his request for a special enrollment period this year. But looking to the future, he says, it may make sense to align insurance enrollment with tax time.
