As someone else said previosly - Nope, not illegal.

You are correct. As of January 1, 2019, the ACA individual mandate was eliminated by the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, passed in December, 2017.

We all donate to the charities where we have a comfort level and you should do the same. It's easy to sit at at keyboard and search sites for information without deep diving on the sites credibility .....that is your prerogative. After all, it is on the internet so must be true. I have visited St Judes, talked to survivors families and looked at their success rate since founded. I will continue to support St. Judes as my primary cancer treatment center for kids charity. To answer your question, yeah, the really do provide something different and yeah, while not hype they do need to raise money so they must talk about what they do. No different than any other charity, it is the way they survive.

Amen.....so many posters are watching television and are told something and they simply believe every word, log on and fire away...facts be damned

Got em in my will so that says it for me

Charity Navigator seems to be based on the 990 alone. Their methodology is here:

Charity Navigator's Methodology : Charity Navigator

Charity Watch, another charity rating service, analyzes many documents besides the 990. Their methodology is here:

Criteria & Methodology | Charity Ratings | Charity Rankings | CharityWatch

Charity Watch explains how some charities try to make it look like they are more efficient with donations than they are and how Charity Watch looks for that and uses it in its evaluations.

Keep in mind that both Charity Watch and Charity Navigator are 501c3 charities themselves but neither rates the other.:)

No, it does not. That part of the ACA was never enforced and was completely eliminated for 2019. No one has ever been levied for not having insurance on the ACA.

Already answered in Post No.17. The ACA did require health insurance, but that part of the law was eliminated in 2019 by the tax cut act. Just because a law is not enforced doesn't mean it is not illegal to break it. But, to be accurate, the IRS did enforce the ACA individual mandate on tax returns prior to 2018. For example, in 2015, the IRS collected $3.1 billion in penalties from people who violated the ACA individual mandate to have health insurance.

Still wrong. From Heathcare.gov:

For plan years through 2018, if you can afford health insurance but choose not to buy it, you may pay a fee called the individual Shared Responsibility Payment when you file your federal taxes. (The fee is sometimes called the "penalty," "fine," or "individual mandate.")

It was never against the law. You could choose to pay the fee, which no longer exists.

Maybe just semantics, but the actual ACA law calls it a "penalty", which, by definition, is a punishment for breaking a law.

It's not semantics. It's actual words with actual meanings.

It was never illegal to not have insurance. If it were, you could have charges pressed against you, or have a misdemeanor summons issued against you if it was only a misdemeanor. It would be something you'd have the opportunity to plead guilty/not guilty/no contest to.

This was a fee that was intended to offset some of the costs of subsidies for people who -can't- afford health care and whose employers don't offer it. A mandatory fee in exchange for choosing not to have any health insurance.

Again, it was never actually implemented, no one has ever been made to pay the fee.