ACA Penalty/Tax: Study Reveals Even After Factoring The Subsidy It Is Cheaper For Most Young People To Forego ACA Coverage and Pay the Penalty

‘The conservative American Action Forum (AAF) released a study on Tuesday saying that the individual mandate penalty may never be substantial enough an incentive to get young adults to buy into the ObamaCare exchanges.

The study finds that after accounting for cost-sharing and subsidies in 2014, it would still be cheaper for 86 percent of young adults to forgo coverage and to pay the individual mandate instead. That percentage decreases to 71 in 2015, and 62 in 2016, as the individual mandate penalty goes up.

“Even after the mandate penalty is fully implemented, a majority of young adult households will find that it is financially advantageous for them to forgo health insurance, pay the mandate penalty, and personally cover their own health care expenses,” the study says.

While this would leave young adults vulnerable to extremely high medical bills if they endured a catastrophic illness or accident, the study highlights the challenge the Obama administration has in its push to enroll the “young invincible.”’ - Study: Young adults lack incentive to buy ObamaCare coverage, thehill.com, 01/22/2014
Link to the entire article appears below:

http://thehill.com/blogs/healthwatch/health-reform-implementation/196104-study-young-adults-lack-incentive-to-buy#ixzz2r8yBUjBc