How PPACA Penalizes You For Being Married

Posted on May 25, 2011 at 4:25 pm, by

It may sound crazy in theory, but the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) actually has in place two penalties that target those who are married.

The first penalty strongly encourages individuals to cohabitate instead of marrying. For health insurance, two singles living together who each earn $30,000 would easily qualify for assistance using a subsidy threshold. However, two people who are married and earning a combined $60,000 a year would not qualify for any assistance, as the 400 percent FPL is $58,000.

The second penalty applies to taxes paid by single individuals versus a married couple or family. This taxation issue is explained well by Chris Jacobs with the Republican Policy Committee who explains that “The higher taxes apply to incomes of $200,000 for a single individual, but $250,000 for a family.  Thus a married couple with wage earnings of $195,000 each will pay $5,320 more in taxes than two single persons with the same salary.”

Both of these issues affecting marriage in the US are further explained in a Real Clear Markets piece.

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Nicole Fisher is a current PhD candidate at the University of North Carolina in the Health Policy and Management Department. She also currently writes health care policy for the John Locke Foundation. Before joining the Locke Foundation she worked on several Senate and House campaigns and carried out health care research with an emphasis on women and children's issues. She also sits on several Boards for health related nonprofit organizations in North Carolina and Illinois. Before pursuing her PhD in health policy Nicole obtained her Masters degree in Public Policy from the University of Chicago and her undergraduate degree from the University of Missouri. Follow @nic_fisher or Email: fisher@johnlocke.org

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