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HHS clarifies exemptions from individual mandate in states that buck Medicaid expansion
As the Obama administration took new steps Wednesday to implement the healthcare law's individual mandate, it clarified an exemption for people whose governors don't take part in the expanded Medicaid program.
The law's unpopular individual mandate requires most taxpayers to either buy health insurance or pay a penalty to the IRS. But there are several exceptions to the policy, and the Health and Human Services Department emphasized those carve-outs in newly issued regulations Wednesday.
Most of the exceptions are spelled out in the law itself, but the Health and Human Services Department clarified or expanded a few key provisions.
Notably, HHS clarified that the mandate doesn't apply to people who are eligible for Medicaid but live in states that don't take part in the law's Medicaid expansion.
The law itself gave little consideration to the prospect of states opting out, but most Republicans governors are rejecting the expansion as they try to undermine the Affordable Care Act however possible.
As a practical matter, Medicaid-eligible people were likely to fall under the law's other exemptions. But the administration clarified a direct exemption in Wednesday's rules implementing the mandate and its exceptions.
HHS also clarified an exemption for people whose incomes change over the course of a year.
The mandate doesn't apply to people who can't buy insurance for less than 9 percent of their annual salary. HHS clarified Wednesday that the mandate won't kick in retroactively for people who turn down coverage at the beginning of the year because it was deemed unaffordable, but then end the year having made enough money that coverage would have been affordable, after all.
