Administration adds major exemption for Obamacare individual mandate

From Fox News:

In what might be the death knell for ObamaCare’s most controversial component — the individual mandate to buy insurance — the administration has added a mega-exemption that critics say would allow virtually anybody to skirt the rule.

“This is a huge public policy decision that could affect millions of Americans,” House Speaker John Boehner said, adding that the latest change, made ahead of the March 31 enrollment deadline, applies to “essentially everyone.”

“The door’s wide open,” economist Doug Holtz-Eakin, who leads the conservative-leaning American Action Forum, told Fox News. “[The] mandate which they said was absolutely crucial to ObamaCare is falling apart day by day.”

The most recent exemption was included in an ObamaCare application document. There already had been 13 distinct exemptions, but this document added one more — apparently it was added in late December.

The document said that individuals can now qualify for a “hardship exemption” — meaning they would not have to pay a penalty for not buying insurance — if they “experienced another hardship in obtaining health insurance.”

The document does not define what “another hardship” means, and suggests the administration might not be a stickler when it comes to proof either. It says anyone seeking this exemption should “submit documentation if possible.” … Read more.