IRS Enforcement Could Decide Success Or Failure of Obamacare

For Americans who choose not to buy health insurance the tax man probably won’t be coming anytime soon, The Washington Post reports.

Politicians, pundits and the press have been crying foul about Obamacare’s myriad failures since its Oct. 1 launch, but it turns out much of the program’s success or failure will ultimately lie with the IRS, the agency responsible for fining Americans who don’t buy health insurance.

The lawmakers who drafted the Affordable Care Act, known as Obamacare, hog-tied the IRS in its ability to collect fines for the uninsured — $95 in 2014 or 1 percent of income, whichever is greater. The IRS is barred from usual penalties such as liens, foreclosures and criminal prosecution. Its only remedy is to garnish tax refunds for those who over paid their taxes, according to the Post.

“Most people who really want to game the system will probably get away with it,” writes Forbes contributor Howard Gleckman, who characterizes the tax as a “mouse.”

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