Health insurance provides regular, preventive care for you and your family to stay healthy and prevent illness. Medical bills are the number one cause of bankruptcy and can reach into the millions of dollars. Having quality health coverage gives you peace of mind knowing that if an accident or illness strikes you and your family are protected from a lifetime of financial burden.
Starting with the 2019 coverage year, there is no longer a tax penalty or “individual mandate” for not having health insurance.
Learn more about the individual mandate for 2014-2018 on the IRS website. See below for information about exemptions for the individual mandate for 2018 and earlier.
Depending on the type of exemption you qualify for, you will need to submit an application to Healthcare.gov or request the exemption from the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) when you file your taxes. (MNsure does not accept exemption applications).
MNsure uses the federal Health Insurance Marketplace to process exemption applications. The federal government will notify you if you qualify for an exemption. If you apply to HealthCare.gov and qualify, you will receive an exemption certificate number that you'll need for your federal income tax return you file for the year of the exemption. For questions about the status of your application or your eligibility for an exemption, visit HealthCare.gov, or call the Health Insurance Marketplace Help Center at 800-318-2596. TTY users should call 855-889-4325. If you have questions about how to get a copy of and where to submit the application form, call the MNsure Contact Center at 855-366-7873 or 651-539-2099.
You can claim this exemption based on coverage being unaffordable for the months in 2018 when you did not have coverage when you fill out your 2018 tax return, which was due in 2019.
You can claim this exemption using the federal Form 8965. You will need to use the following information from MNsure to complete this form:
This information is easy to find using the instructions below.
NOTE: If you are applying for an exemption for unaffordable coverage from your employer, you do not need any information from MNsure. You will need to follow the directions on the federal exemption application to submit information about your employer's plan. You can claim this exemption when you file your taxes using the federal Form 8965.
1. Open MNsure's plan comparison tool -- on the first page, click the Continue button.
2. Under "Which Coverage Year" select the year for which you are seeking information. Note: if you pick a year prior to the current coverage year, a date picker will appear. Enter the start Date for your exemption.
43. Under "Where do you live" enter the ZIP Code of your residential address. Your county of residence will appear. If there is more than one county for your ZIP code, select your county of residence.
4. Under "Who is in your household and do they need coverage?" enter the following information for each person in your household applying for the exemption:
5. Skip the financial help section and click Browse Plans button on bottom right.
6. Skip the “Tell Us about Your Health Care Needs” page and select Skip to View Plans button.
7. Under the "Health Plans" tab, the medical plans available to you will display.
8. On the left side of your screen, sort plans by Monthly Price and look for the first bronze plan that appears in the list. This is the lowest cost bronze plan available to your family. Note the premium amount for your lowest cost bronze plan.
9. After sorting by Monthly Premium you should see the lowest cost bronze plan at the top of the page. Next, find the second lowest cost silver plan by scrolling down the list.
10. You may want to print a copy of this results page for your records.
If you need assistance obtaining this information, call the Contact Center. Please note that MNsure cannot answer tax-related questions.
