The Internal Revenue Service has drafted a collection of proposed regulations that could determine whether some taxpayers will owe fines for failing to get health coverage.
The individual mandate section in the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act requires some taxpayers who fail to own a minimum amount of major medical coverage, or “minimum essential coverage,” to pay the fines.
Some sections in the proposed IRS regulations will exempt some people in limited-benefit government programs from paying the fines.
Those affected include state programs for the medically needy, Medicaid pilot programs, and two programs that give people some access to military health care services.
The IRS assumes many enrollees are confused.
Many enrollees probably think the programs can get them out of having to pay the mandate penalty, even though the programs don’t provide enough benefits to do that, officials say in a preamble to the proposed regs.
Another section in the draft regulations could help high-income families that fail to meet PPACA coverage standards.