Find out if you qualify for a health insurance coverage exemption

The Affordable Care Act calls for individuals to have qualifying health insurance coverage for each month of the year, have an exemption, or make a shared responsibility payment when filing his or her federal income tax return. You may be exempt from the requirement to maintain qualifying health insurance coverage, called Minimum Essential Coverge, and may not have to make a shared responsibility payment when you file your next federal income tax return. You may be exempt if you: * Have no affordable coverage options because the minimum amount you must pay for the annual premiums is more than 8% of your household income * Have a gap in coverage for less than three consecutive months * 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 How you get an exemption depends on the type of exemption. You can obtain exemptions only from the Marketplace in the area in which you live, others you can obtain only from the IRS, and yet others from iether the Marketplace or the IRS. Additional information about exemptions is available on the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision web page on IRS.gov