The Trump administration will give people more ways to avoid paying Obamacare’s penalty for not having insurance, including if the person cannot buy an affordable plan that doesn’t cover abortions.
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services on Monday expanded the list of hardship exemptions for the individual mandate, which requires everyone to have health insurance. CMS said people who live in a county that has only one Obamacare insurer can receive an exemption from the penalty. It also lets people avoid the fine if the only affordable plans available on the law’s exchanges cover abortion.
The law’s exchanges are on the individual market that is used by people who don’t get insurance through a job or the government.
The mandate was repealed in Republicans’ tax legislation starting in 2019, meaning taxpayers must have insurance or pay a penalty this year.
“We have been looking for ways to bring relief for Americans from Obamacare’s individual mandate penalty,” CMS Administrator Seema Verma said on a call with reporters.
CMS officials said the new exemptions would apply in the 2017 and 2018 coverage years. The penalty is $695 or 2.5 percent of household income, whichever is highest.
CMS did not provide an estimate of how many people would use the new exemptions. The law already has hardship exemptions including job loss or low income.
The exemption for abortion plans could be used by many people as certain states, chief among them California and New York, require all plans sold on Obamacare’s exchanges to cover abortion.
Half of U.S. counties only had one Obamacare insurer this year.
In 2016, more than 6 million Americans paid the fine for not having insurance, according to totals from the Internal Revenue Service.
