Obamacare customers caught lying on their applications in an effort to bag bigger taxpayer-funded subsidies could get slapped with a $25,000 to $250,000 fine.
Page 409 of the recently released Health and Human Services regulations states that "any person who fails to provide correct information" on the Obamacare application "may be subject to a maximum civil money penalty of $25,000 for each application." Anyone who "knowingly and willfully provides false information" is subject to a "maximum civil money penalty of $250,000 for each application."
A recent Washington Post investigation of internal Obama administration documents determined that "potentially hundreds of thousands of people are receiving bigger subsidies than they deserve" because they "listed incomes on their insurance applications that differ significantly--either too low or too high--from those on file with the Internal Revenue Service."
So will the Obama administration actually slap hundreds of thousands of Obamacare customers with $25,000 to $250,000 fines for submitting incorrect information on their Obamacare applications to score lower taxpayer-funded health insurance premiums?
No, says University of Michigan assistant law professor, Nicholas Bagley.
"The money at stake in any given case is too small, and the process for imposing civil money penalties too cumbersome, to justify much in the way of governmental enforcement," Bagley told Vox.
Obamacare will cost U.S. taxpayers $2.6 trillion over the next ten years.
