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Obama Administration Says Low-Income and Middle Class Can Afford Insurance

September 20, 2012


SHOT: Administration Says Individual Mandate Tax Will Only Affect Those Who Can Afford Health Care
“This (analysis) doesn’t change the basic fact that the individual responsibility policy will only affect people who can afford health care but choose not to buy it,” said Erin Shields Britt of the Health and Human Services Department. “We’re no longer going to subsidize the care of those who can afford to buy insurance but make a choice not to buy it.”

CHASER: Over 50 Percent of Those Paying the Individual Mandate Tax Will Have Incomes Below 300 Percent of Poverty
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO) now estimates, that in 2016, more than half of the taxpayers who will be forced to pay the new mandate tax will have incomes less than 300 percent of poverty in 2016 ($36,000 for an individual; $73,800 for a family of four in 2016) will pay roughly $1.6 billion in new taxes as a result of the health care law’s individual mandate tax.  Further, nearly one-third of those being forced to pay the new tax will have incomes below 200 percent of poverty in 2016 ($24,000 for an individual, $49,200 for a family of four), accounting for $900 million in new taxes paid.  Despite the fact that the Obama Administration has dictated that they can afford health insurance, the reality is these middle-class and low-income Americans have limited means and may not be able to shoulder the cost of insurance. 

The Obama Administration’s solution?  Tax them. 

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