How does the final GOP tax bill affect health care in Colorado?
Roughly 235,000 fewer people in Colorado could have health insurance by 2025
December 20, 2017
A sign placed out on the 16th Street Mall, beckons people to sign up for health insurance through the Affordable Care Act on March 24, 2014.
The Republican bill that overhauls the nation's tax code makes one major change in health care that impacts everybody in Colorado — and leaves in place other health-related provisions that had been on the chopping block.
Here's an explanation:
The bill eliminates the fine for not having insurance
The requirement that everyone have health insurance, known as the individual mandate, will remain. But the fine that people pay for not having insurance will disappear, starting in 2019, meaning there will be no government punishment if you don't have insurance.
More than 126,000 Coloradans paid that penalty in 2015, to the tune of $60.6 million. But for many, the cost of paying the fine was less than the cost of insurance, according to a November report from the Colorado Health Institute.
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