Four Million Americans To Pay ObamaCare Fine In 2016

Four Million Americans To Pay ObamaCare Fine In 2016

By David Hogberg

Thu., April 22, 2010 3:07 PM ET

Tags: ObamaCare - Health Care - Mandates - Obama - Earnings AP reports that "4 million Americans — the vast majority of them middle class — will have to pay the new penalty for not getting health insurance when President Barack Obama's health care overhaul law kicks in, according to congressional estimates released Thursday. The penalties will average a little more than $1,000 apiece in 2016, the Congressional Budget Office said in a report." Penalties will be phased in from 2014. By 2016, the fine will be $695 or 2.5% of household income, whichever is greater. More than a dozen states are challenging the individual mandate in federal court as unconstitutional. If only candidate Obama could explain to President Obama why mandates aren't such a good idea: Back in 2008, he ripped Hillary Clinton for supporting a mandate, claiming that was a "genuine difference" between them. Here he compares a health care mandate to forcing the homeless to buy homes. Meanwhile, nary a day passes now that some company isn't reporting bad financial news precipitated by the passage of ObamaCare. From just the last two days:   -Baxter International Inc. (BAX) plunged the most in seven years after the company cut its 2010 earnings forecast on costs from the U.S. health care overhaul. *** -Amgen Inc.'s (AMGN) first-quarter profit beat Wall Street expectations as sales of its anti-infection drugs improved. However the company said 2010 results will come in at the low end of its forecast due to health reform costs. Amgen said new requirements under the reform bill will cost it $200 million to $250 million this year. Among other provisions, the law gives bigger drug discounts to Medicaid recipients, and makes more managed care groups eligible for Medicaid drug rebates. *** -Lockheed Martin, (LMT) the world's largest defense contractor, said Wednesday that its profit for the first quarter fell 18% compared with the same period a year ago, a decline related largely to changes in federal tax policy brought on by the recently passed health care reform law... The company attributed its lower earnings in part to "an unusual charge" related to legislation that ended a tax deduction for benefit costs reimbursed under Medicare Part D. The charge decreased earnings by $96 million, according to Lockheed.