The Affordable Care Act requires most individuals to maintain minimum essential health coverage for themselves and their family members or pay a tax penalty. This is referred to as the “Individual Shared Responsibility” requirement of health care reform. For 2019, the individual shared responsibility payment has been reduced to $0.00.
An individual is not required to have minimum essential health coverage for a month if the individual gets a hardship exemption certificate from the Health Reform Marketplace certifying that the individual has suffered a hardship. Three additional exemptions have been added for the 2018 tax year. For this year, a person is eligible for a hardship exemption for at least the month before, the month(s) during, and the month after the specific event or circumstance that creates the hardship, if the Marketplace determines that: (i) the individual experienced financial or domestic circumstances, including an unexpected natural or human-caused event, such that the individual had a significant, unexpected increase in essential expenses that prevented the individual from obtaining coverage under a qualified health plan; (ii) The expense of purchasing a qualified health plan would have caused the individual to experience serious deprivation of food, shelter, clothing, or other necessities; or (iii) the individual has experienced other circumstances that prevented him or her from obtaining coverage under a qualified health plan.
Individuals without coverage during 2018 should review the hardship exemptions available to determine if any applies to their situations.
