Erroneous taxation information in the HealthCare.gov website has caused a problem for many Americans.
Among the Americans who have enrolled in the insurance policies required by the health care reform, through the HealthCare.gov federal website, have received incorrect tax information from the government and are being advised to wait a while before filing their tax returns, to give the government time to correct the error.
Also announced at the same time as this error, was the additional time that Americans would receive for enrollment.
Congressional Democrats pressured the Obama administration into boosting the amount of time available for several million people to comply with the health care reform. They now have additional time in order to purchase their insurance coverage so that they will be able to avoid tax penalties. The hope is to encourage the largest possible number of people to head to the federal website and purchase their health plans so that they will have the coverage required by the individual mandate of the Affordable Care Act.
The health care reform tax issue will impact taxpayers in 37 states and is the first major issue in this enrollment period.
This second enrollment period for the Affordable Care Act has run relatively smoothly; particularly when compared with the situation that was experienced last year, in which the website suffered a catastrophe of errors. So far, during this enrollment period, the online insurance exchanges have gone above and beyond their enrollment targets, and premiums for policies sold there have typically been lower than had been anticipated.
Still, this tax information error could potentially lead to struggles and frustration for hundreds of thousands of Americans in lower income brackets, who qualified for subsidized health insurance and who had hoped to receive their tax refunds sooner, rather than later. Now, those consumers will need to wait additional weeks to file their taxes and receive their refunds.
As many people were counting on those health care reform tax refunds for paying bills and credit card debt, among other things, this insurance news could be very problematic for those who are being affected by it.
