How exactly is this fine supposed to be enforced? Simply added to your taxes? For the record I think it's BS that I get fined for not giving my business to companies that I don't trust and are incentivized to screw me over. Signing up for Obamacare isn't signing up for health care, it's signing up insurance against grossly overpriced healthcare. Lets fix the problem, not play the insurance companies game.
<i>Technical problems due to scheduled maintenance is to blame</i><p>'Scheduled maintenece' is either one hell of a euphamism or a most cynical Dark Pattern.
For anyone wondering, the Obama administration has already built in a system for letting people who tried to sign up in the next couple days but didn't complete an application sign up without a fine in preparation for this. I'm sure it won't handle all cases and seems odd given how strict they said the deadline would be, but just for clarity of debate I wanted that out there.
This is normal for any systems of this type. The online tax returns system for HMRC in the UK does the same thing every year. People need do it earlier.