It would have been hard to miss the run-up to the February 15 open enrollment deadline for Obamacare. Endless reminders on social media were coupled with everything from the setup of mall kiosks during the holiday season to phone banks to bus tours to petting zoos and prison visits.
Hey St. Louis @covermissouri Very creative Kickoff event! Great enrollment #s #TBT #11MillionAndCounting pic.twitter.com/WulqIbDKpo
— HHSRegion7 (@HHSRegion7) February 19, 2015
Offenders nearing release taking responsibility for family & self. ACF @HHSRegion7 was there#TBT#11MillionAndCounting pic.twitter.com/a9Hx5NFc20
— HHSRegion7 (@HHSRegion7) February 19, 2015
Another round of computer glitches extended the deadline slightly further for those who attempted to sign up in time but weren’t able to complete the application. So what’s this business about another special enrollment period?
Kaiser Health News senior correspondent Anna Gorman is teasing the yet-to-be scheduled signup event.
California considering special enrollment for folks who see their tax penalties and don't like them. But Peter Lee says deadlines matter.
— Anna Gorman (@annagorman) February 17, 2015
The Daily Signal has a closer look at the plan.
…California, New York and Kentucky are considering their own grace periods aimed at consumers who may not have realized they will pay a fine for not having health insurance.
“This is a teachable moment,” Peter Lee, executive director of California’s exchange, Covered California, said. “This is the first time ever in our history that health care and taxes are totally intertwined.”
Health care and taxes are totally intertwined? Didn’t President Obama himself insist that the health insurance mandate was a penalty, and “absolutely not a tax increase”? We guess that was just another teachable moment too.
But another change to the rules just for those who “don’t like” their tax penalties? Is that legal? Washington and Lee University School of Law professor Timothy Jost says the law grants the Department of Health and Human Services secretary the authority to create special enrollment periods in “exceptional” circumstances.
[Jost] told The Daily Signal because this is the first year the uninsured have incurred a fine for not having coverage, it qualifies as an exceptional circumstance.
“For a lot of people who have not yet filed their taxes, and that includes most Americans, people are going to realize that this penalty is there,” Jost said.
So, when’s the special Obamacare repeal period for those of us who don’t “like” our health care and taxes totally intertwined?
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