
Congress enacted the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act back in December of 2017. And it eliminates the individual health insurance mandate imposed by the Affordable Care Act. But, unfortunately, the provision doesn’t take effect until 2019. And individuals and their dependents, that are not otherwise considered exempt from the mandate, are still required to have at least minimum health insurance coverage in 2018.
The amount of the penalty for not having the required health insurance coverage is either a flat dollar amount or a percentage of your household income, whichever is greater. For 2018 the flat amount penalty is $695.00 per adult. And it is $347.50 per child under the age of 18. There is a maximum of $2,085.00 per family. The percentage penalty is 2.5% of your household income. But you would need a fairly large household income to be subjected to the percentage penalty.
Health insurance rates can vary widely among what initially appears to be an endless amount of insurance companies. And there are many risk factors that are utilized in calculating your rates. But it still boils down to the fact of, the riskier that you appear, the more you will be charged for coverage.Insurance companies utilize a range of data to determine what rates to charge each individual and/or family. And some of those factors include:
And because of the Affordable Care Act, no additional factors can affect the cost of your health insurance plan, besides any savings that you may receive from subsidies and/or tax credits.