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The so-called "individual mandate" – the provision under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) that requires most individuals to carry a minimum level of insurance coverage and is now being considered by the Supreme Court – has emerged as the least popular element of the reform law and the prime target for its opponents. Yet in practice, the mandate may not be quite as far-reaching as the controversy over it suggests. The vast majority of Americans already…
As the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA) nears its second birthday, the latest Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds that public opinion on the law remains evenly split (41 percent favorable, 40 percent unfavorable) with sharp divisions along partisan lines, much as it has been since the law was passed. With the Supreme Court preparing to hear challenges to the law later this month, about half the public thinks the Court should strike down the…
For the two years since the law's passage, and during the debate leading up to it, the individual mandate has been one of the most controversial aspects of the law. As the lawyers, policy makers, ACA opponents and supporters focus intently on the Supreme Court hearings, this Data Note looks at what the general public thinks of the mandate, explores the reasons why favorability ratings have been so low, and suggests that while opinion on…
The Individual Mandate Penalty Calculator estimates your penalty for going uninsured vs. how much you would pay for health insurance coverage on the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces.
A new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis finds that more than half (54% or 5.9 million) of the 10.7 million people who are uninsured and eligible to purchase an Affordable Care Act marketplace plan in 2018 could pay less in premiums for health insurance than they would owe as an individual mandate tax penalty for lacking coverage.
As Republicans in Congress continue efforts to pass tax reform, the November Kaiser Health Tracking Poll examines views of the plans and how they relate to health care issues. Overall, reforming the tax code is seen as a “top priority” for President Trump and Congress by about three in ten (28 percent), falling well-behind several health care issues such as reauthorizing funding for the State Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP) (62 percent) and stabilizing the…
Most of the Public Initially Favors Getting Rid of the ACA’s Individual Mandate As Part of Tax Reform, But Some Become Opponents When Presented with Facts and Arguments for Keeping the Mandate As the House prepares to vote Thursday on its tax reform bill, a new Kaiser Family Foundation poll finds almost three in 10 Americans (28%) view tax reform as a top priority for President Trump and Congress. That’s significantly fewer than the share…
As insurers grapple with continuing uncertainty surrounding 2018 Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplaces, a new Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of initial filings in 21 major cities finds that changes in 2018 benchmark silver plan premiums are likely to range widely, from a decrease of 5 percent in Providence, R.I., to an increase of 49 percent in Wilmington, Del., without factoring in tax credits. However, the analysis finds that preliminary rates will likely change, and some…
This was published as a Wall Street Journal Think Tank column on April 21, 2015. Tax season has come and gone with no great outbreak of protest about the Affordable Care Act’s least popular provision: the individual mandate. This central element of the ACA was included to help ensure that the individual insurance market would have balanced pools of healthier people and sicker people to help spread insurance risk and keep premiums reasonable. While most of the…
This analysis measures changes in enrollment in the individual market, including those in both marketplace plans and off-exchange plans, before and after the ACA’s coverage expansions and market rules went into effect in 2014 through the first quarter of 2019.
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