IRS Finally Approves Penalties for Not Buying Insurance

Well it seems like it might be fairly steep to not have insurance for any length of time.

If individuals choose not to carry insurance, they are subject to a penalty, starting at $95 per person per year or 1 percent of income in 2014, whichever is greater, and eventually reaching $695 per person or 2.5 percent of income by 2016.

It is not bad at first but it gets worse and worse as the years pass. This is especially bad if employers start cutting their employees health insurance to save money. It will be interesting to see what kind of insurance you can get off of the Obamacare exchanges.

Also I wonder how long you have to have insurance in order to avoid this penalty? You could buy health insurance for a month and then cancel it and say you have had it for the entire year. I wonder how the IRS will figure out how long you have had your insurance and when you have cancelled it.