Medicaid, and health care programs for veterans.
For purposes of the individual shared responsibility payment, you are
considered to have minimum essential coverage for the entire month as long
as you have minimum essential coverage for the entire month.
You may be exempt from the requirement to
maintain minimum essential coverage and thus will not have to make a shared
responsibility payment when you file your 2014 federal income tax return in
2015, if you have no affordable coverage options because the minimum amount
you must pay for the annual premiums is more than eight percent of your
household income. Also, you may be exempt if you have a gap in coverage for
less than three consecutive months. Additionally, you may be exempt from
coverage if you qualify for an exemption for one of several other reasons,
including having a hardship that prevents you from obtaining coverage, or
belonging to a group explicitly exempt from the requirement.
Because of the Affordable Care Act, more
Americans have access to coverage that is affordable. However,
if there is no coverage available to you and your family that
costs less than eight percent of your household income, you can
qualify for an exemption. You may be exempt from
coverage if you have no affordable options because the minimum amount you
must pay for the annual premiums is more than eight percent of your
household income. You may also be exempt from coverage if you have a gap in
coverage for less than three consecutive months. Additionally, you could be
exempt if you qualify for an exemption for one of several reasons such as
having a hardship that prevent your from obtaining coverage or if you belong
to a group exempt from the requirement.
You can learn more at HealthCare.gov about which
health insurance options are available to you, how to purchase
health insurance coverage, and how to get financial assistance
with the cost of insurance. Additionally, an exemption applies
to individuals who purchased their insurance through the Marketplace during
the initial enrollment period for 2014, which ran from October 1, 2013,
through March 31, 2014. Furthermore,
a hardship exemption applied from January 1, 2014, until the start of
your health care coverage, which, if you enrolled between March 16 and March
31 would generally have been May 1.This
hardship exemption may apply if you have been notified that your health
insurance policy will not be renewed and you consider the other plans
available to you unaffordable.
How you get an exemption from the requirement to
maintain minimum essential health insurance coverage depends
upon the type of exemption for which you are eligible. You can
obtain some exemptions only from the Marketplace. You can obtain
some other exemptions from the IRS. You can get other exemptions from both
the Marketplace and the IRS.
The individual shared responsibility provision
went into effect in 2014. You won’t need to report minimum
essential coverage or exemptions or make any individual shared
responsibility payment until you file your 2014 federal income tax return in
2015.If you or any of your dependents don’t have
minimum essential coverage and don’t have an exemption, you will
need to make an additional shared responsibility payment on your tax return.
If you must make an individual shared
responsibility payment, the annual payment amount is the greater
of a percentage of your household income or a flat dollar
amount, but is capped at the national
