Cool: I Might Be Able to Skip the ObamaCare Mandate

Sorry 99%ers.  I know that you are still smarting over the fact that you are going to help me, an off and on 1%er (some years are better than others!), buy a nice house, but I have some more unwelcome news.

I might be immune from the ObamaCare mandate penalty/tax/whatever thingy.  Yup.

Under normal circumstances, the IRS has broad powers to collect taxes from those who don't pay what they owe. It can charge civil and criminal penalties, impose liens, and seize assets and bank accounts.

But ObamaCare specifically blocks the IRS from using these enforcement tools when it comes to collecting any unpaid ObamaCare tax penalties.

These restrictions "make it unlikely the IRS can effectively enforce the individual mandate," according to a detailed analysis of the tax penalty by Jordan Barry and Bryan Camp, law professors at the University of San Diego and Texas Tech University, respectively.

"The individual mandate," they conclude, "may not actually be mandatory after all."

Naturally, I'm going to get some tax advice on this, but it looks like all the IRS can do to enforce the ObamaCare mandate is withhold refunds.  For those whose tax circumstances are such that they are never in a position to claim a refund (owners of LLCs are usually never getting a refund), it might be possible to skirt the mandate penalty/tax thingy.

Chances are I am going to buy health insurance anyway.  I've already been notified that my policy is going to be cancelled due to ObamaCare, but not to worry, because they have a nice, compliant policy for me that is only 6% more expensive.  (That is only the case because I live in New York.  Us New Yorkers were getting screwed well before ObamaCare came along, so the sticker shock post-Obamacare is less than in other states.)  It's not a good deal for me, but it is not egregious enough yet for me to self-insure.  That could change however. I might decide to put aside a nice tidy sum as a reserve against healthcare spending, take my chances, and keep the dough should we all stay healthy.  Knowing that I could skirt the penalty might be the deciding factor in such a decision.

Now, before you get all critical on me (look at the greedy 1%er sabotaging ObamaCare!) this is the same situation with the expansion of Medicare at the state level.  ObamaCare was either sloppily written and/or written the way it was so that it could pass constitutional muster. States choosing not to expand Medicare are within their rights to do so as the law  is written (the LAW OF THE LAND, I might add).  States have no obligation to account for sloppily written law and/or cede a constitutional prerogative if they don't have to.  The individual mandate is written as it is and its constitutional survival is dependent on a precise SCOTUS interpretation.  I have no obligation to account for a sloppily-written law and/or to cede a constitutional right by handing over a check that I don't have to.

Sorry if this makes you mad.  Maybe there should have been more thought put into this thing...