The Obama administration has offered Americans who have not signed up for health insurance a one-time offer to enlist with no fines. Not signing up when they could afford to carries an average fine of US$170 for low and center salary people as well as independently employed agents.

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It is usually deducted from a person's tax refund, according to H&R Block, a tax preparation company. It is the first time that the U.S. government is collecting fines on uninsured people who can afford coverage, notes AP.

A congressional estimate places the number of people who would be fined at about 4 million.

One of them is Charles Baxter of Phoenix, who is a travel agent. Baxter said US$247 was deducted from his tax refund in 2014 as penalty for being uninsured. Despite the deduction, Baxter is still not sure if he would sign up for coverage since the bulk of his income, ironically, goes for the care of his mother who has health issues.

It is people like Baxter whom the Obamacare law intended to help. Most of them are either low- and middle-income employees with no coverage provided by their company or self-employed workers.

The no-fine offer begins Sunday and is good only until April 30. People with no health insurance are encouraged to avail of the opportunity and to avoid fine which is being hiked to US$375, reports Consolidatetimes.com.

To qualify for the listing, there are some conditions such as that they are unaware they are legally mandated to have coverage after the open enrollment ended on February 15. But the requirements are only for the 37 states served by the federal HealthCare.gov website. There could be different rules and deadlines for states that run their own insurance exchanges.

TagsObamacare, health insurance