Penalty for not having health insurance

Hi, I am really new at this. Unfortunately, I still live with my folks and have a crappy job and so I am still covered by their insurance. I turn 26 at the end of this year, which means I will no longer be covered by their insurance as of next year, I believe. Hypothetically, if I were to (God forbid) not be able to find a good-paying job that provides health care coverage and I need to pay the penalty (which I hear is still better than Obamacare or Trumpcare, but somewhere in the $1300 dollar range) would I be able to pay this over a payment plan or all up front?

Obviously, I am trying to find a better job so this doesn't happen, but I can't seem to find a straight answer about this. Any answers or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

The penalty is paid at the end of the year when you file your taxes. So it would come out of your tax refund. If it's more then your refund then you would simply pay the difference. Although if your income is low enough you'd likely quality for cheap health insurance through the exchange.

Ridiculous, paying a fee just for existing.

No matter what he does Roberts will never make up for this, he will die in hell.

As for your question, like @ferrari2001, it is all dealt with through your tax filing.

Or you could stick it to the Man and not pay your taxes!

Or join me here in PR and simply not have insurance! Bwahahahaha*

*Certain restrictions apply. You might die without healthcare.**

**You might die with it too! (dun dun dun!)**

@poe13: I had a career and owned a home by the time I was 26. What the hell is wrong with you?

I was able to be covered until I was no longer 26 so you may be off on that.

maybe he lives in California

Those commies.

I was referring more to the fact it costs 600+k for a 2 bed, 1 bath home....but yeah, we have a really bad communist problem, too.

@Master_Live: Personally I think its ridiculous to pay a fee just to drive a car. Like I already paid for the car and I'm a relatively safe drive. TF do I need auto insurance for? /s

You can go your whole life without driving a car. You can call a cab or a Uber, or maybe a limousine? Public transport?

I know for fact this can be done as I have two aunts, TWO, who don't drive and have never learned to do so in their entire life.

This are relatively young women (their 50's.). They worked (one is now retired) their whole lives. One you could call middle class (if you squint hard enough), the other one is of humble means.

@Master_Live: Yeah you can go your whole life without driving a car but you can't go your whole life without seeing a doctor else it will be a very short one. The reason medical insurance is pushed on you is so when you finally do go see the doctor you'll have something to cover the costs. ER visits that go unpaid wind up being the tax payers responsibility afterall

Just pointing out that your car insurance example, a common retort in this kind of argument, is invalid.

@Master_Live: Not quite. You -need- insurance if you plan on driving just as much as you need health insurance if you plan on living. Ultimately one doesn't truly need it until they do lol

Yep, but I wasn't arguing about that. I was arguing about paying a fee for (being an adult and) merely existing. In one case this is true (health insurance in the USA) and in the other it isn't true (requiring car insurance to drive a vehicle).

@Master_Live: Thats not the only fee you get for just existing. Lifes full of them

@plageus900: I can't get a job. Do I need to spell it out for you? Look I've been to several interviews for different positions like IT help desk, admin assistant, inventory clerk, marketing assistant, etc. I've got 2 part-time jobs and I'm trying to pay off my tuition. I did well in school but obviously that means **** all to employers. I have some volunteer work so I can talk about a few things at interviews.

It's wonderful that you got your life set for yourself by 26. I wasn't so lucky. No need to kick me while I'm down. Every day I'm on indeed and Glassdoor applying for jobs in office settings and IT. I'm fucking trying.

@ferrari2001: thank you Ferrari for simply answering without being judgmental. Would you by chance know if I would then be able to pay that off over weekly/monthly payments after it has been deducted from my tax return or would I be expected to pay it all out right away?

Yeah, you pay upfront when you do your taxes. You won't be worrying about the penalty for 2017 (you've already been covered for most months of that year to avoid the penalty since your birthday is towards the end of the year). When you file your 2018 taxes, assuming you don't have health insurance throughout most of the months of 2018, you will pay the penalty. I believe the penalty is $695 for 1 adult or 2.5% of your adjusted gross income - whichever is higher. This is for 2016 and 2017 figures, so it might change in 2018. My advice, put money aside each month to cover the penalty come tax time.

@ssvegeta555: Thank you

Where do you live? I had to move to another state to get the job I have. The choices I had where I grew up were logging, mill work, gas station attendant or meth dealer.

@plageus900: I live in Wisconsin, the southeastern area so about a 45 minute drive from Milwaukee. Sure it's not Silicon Valley where I might have better success finding an entry-level IT job that DOESN'T require 5+ years of network admin shit, but its not devoid completely of opportunities. At least I hope its not. There seems to be new job entries on the list on the job sites each day I check it, although the common entry-level jobs here are Customer Sales rep, Warehouse, Assembly, and retail mgmt. I have a Bachelor's in Bus. Mgmt and I got a certificate in IT Networking from a technical college after figuring out that I needed more skills and more specific things to add to my resume besides just Intro to fill in the blank business class.

And move to another state. Sure. Let me just reach into my bank account and pull out a few thousand dollars that I don't have to cover moving into a city in another state just in case I can't get a job in the first few months (for rent) only to have to come back here to my folks because I ran out of money and still couldn't find a job. I get it. Maybe I should move out of my comfort zone, but how could I afford that in case things go wrong and the interview at a different state goes bad and I'm left with shit?

@poe13: I didn't move until I had a job secured. The company I work for paid for me to travel to travel to them for an interview. Once I was hired, they paid me $7,000 to relocate. It all depends on where you look for a job and what obstacles you are willing to overcome. You have a degree in business management and an IT certificate? You could easily get a job where I work.

@plageus900: damn! Wish I could find a hot deal like that. They pretty much set up your life for you with 7000 to relocate or at least gave you a good start. I'm willing to do a lot outside of relocating and I'm not like my peers that think they're gonna get a $40,000 job right from school. But I don't know anyone so I'm stuck applying online. It almost feels like everyone I went to school with knew someone from up top to get their good jobs judging by their LinkedIn profiles. I'm still stuck in retail.

@poe13: Would you rather be an IT Specialist or go into management? I work for a semiconductor company that has jobs ranging from marketing to computer programming to semiconductor manufacturing.

@plageus900: While I got my bachelor's in mgmt, I am not too fond of it. Too general. I like the specifics of IT even though I am shit at troubleshooting. IT Business Analyst is more of what I would like in a job. But I will take whatever I can get in IT.

How the hell did a straight up question about the health care penalty turn into an argument in which one person is trying to defend why he doesn't have a better job? That's like if I asked for a mechanical question about my Honda Civic and ultimately ended up trying to justify why I can't afford a Mercedes Benz.

@poe13: Would you be willing to relocate to Portland, Oregon?

@plageus900: I would be interested in looking at opportunities in other states, sure. But relocating on a whim, on the off chance that I may get a good-paying job as opposed to the more likely chance that I won't and the student loans I have to continue paying off and the new rent at a new state in addition to grocery bills and what else...

I mean, its kind of like these people that I work with that got their tax returns and decided that they were gonna spend it all on a week in Mexico or other countries. That's silly. A couple thousand dollars to travel to another country for only a week vacation? Sure if I was bringin' in loads of money that I didn't know what to do with, but a thousand dollars is a down payment on a new car (mine isn't doing too well) or paying off student loans for 4 months in one go. I'm more practical about money.

@poe13: It sounds like you're setting up road blocks for yourself. You don't move to another state until you have a job secured. Once you get your job, you apply for a place to rent or buy and pick up your shit and leave. Its pretty simple. I was flat broke when I got this job.

It's (household income - 10350)*0.025, or $695 per adult, whichever is higher. Not to mention dependents or possible exemptions.

Jesus. It would be $4k for me. I only pay $650 a year for insurance. Wtf.

The IRS does allow individuals to pay via a payment plan if they cannot afford to pay all upfront. You may need to talk to a certified tax professional to see how to make that happen as I've never done it.

Your insurance probably costs a lot more than $650 per year. I don't pay anything out of pocket for mine, but my employer pays about $1200 per month. That is family coverage, not individual, but still...

As mentioned earlier, you should get a job before you relocate. Cast a wide net. Avoid working for the federal government unless getting laid off within your first year or two of employment appeals to you. It takes some time to get started, but if you really work at it and are willing to live anywhere in the US, it shouldn't be that hard to set yourself up with multiple phone interviews per week. Just apply everywhere. Use job searching websites, but also look up companies you know you might be interested in and check their websites for job opportunities. If you have no IT experience at all, don't be too picky. Just take anything you can get to build experience and get a better job the second time around.

I'm interested! Since Portlandia is full of "Diversity" I think I could land a job easily for being a Mexican :P

Good going Obama! What a move to tie our well being with taxes.

@PurpleMan5000: That's what I'm trying to do, bud. I don't see moving to another state being anything other than irrational with the limited amount of funds and experience on my resume that I have. I am trying to find more exp on indeed and glassdoor, that is actually how I got this new job that will be temporary through until the end date of June. I have a crummy part-time job at Walgreens that I've had for several years but I do NOT want to waste my time moving up in a retail environment. So I just keep looking on job sites and sending things out. Maybe I could try to get help from my technical school but I don't know how much help they can be considering my 4 yr college didn't help me much beyond sending me a few links to my email for potential jobs, that's about it.

Can I ask how you all got your jobs? (Anyone that wants to respond).

I would love to hear how you were able to do it. I did well in school all throughout college and my technical college in Business and IT. I have a little bit of volunteer experience assisting with an office move, scheduling backups for a small firm, and creating technical documents for small firms and a church. I also helped schools in a district here with cleaning and imaging their students' Google Chromebooks (thousands of them). I have this all listed on my resume. Now the only other thing I do is score essay/math responses to standardized test questions at another small firm. I am trying to find anything I can to add to the snowball effect of more exp to get a better job. I don't make much at all and I'm really trying to find anything.

How did you guys do it? Did you all get lucky and happen to find internships and volunteer work in college while you coasted with a passable GPA?

I worked hard at school and sorta didn't try as hard to find outside exp since I was under the impression back then that employers would love my great grades but now I know that really doesn't matter. I should have coasted with passable grades and worked to find lots of volunteer opportunities and internships. It is crazy how FUCKING difficult it is to get a job in the $14-15 dollar an hour range.