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Tag: minimum essential coverage

An agent offered to sell me a policy that pays $100 per day when you’re in the hospital. Does that count as Minimum Essential Coverage?

No. Some types of coverage do not qualify as minimum essential coverage. These include hospital indemnity policies (that pay a fixed dollar amount per day when you are hospitalized), discount plans, short-term nonrenewable policies, or plans that provide coverage only for a specific disease (i.e., cancer-only policies). Companies that sell these products, also called “excepted benefits,” are required to notify you if they don’t qualify as minimum essential coverage. If you receive such a notice, at a minimum, ask more questions about how the policy might cover pre-existing conditions or protect you from unaffordable medical bills.  Be aware that excepted benefit policies are not an equivalent substitute for Marketplace policies that meet Affordable Care Act standards.

Do private insurance policies have to be labeled to show whether they are Minimum Essential Coverage?

All health insurers and employer-sponsored group health plans must provide people with a Summary of Benefits and Coverage, which uses a standard format to outline the benefits, cost-sharing and coverage limits of plans. The Summary of Benefits and Coverage must also say whether the plan meets minimum value and counts as minimum essential coverage.

What kinds of coverage count as Minimum Essential Coverage to satisfy the requirement to have health insurance?

Most people with health coverage today have a plan that will count as minimum essential coverage. The following types of health coverage count as minimum essential coverage:

  • Employer-sponsored group health plans
  • Union plans
  • COBRA coverage
  • Retiree health plans
  • Non-group health insurance that you buy on your own, for example, through the health insurance Marketplace
  • Student health insurance plans
  • Grandfathered health plans
  • Medicare
  • Medicaid
  • The Children’s Health Insurance Program (CHIP)
  • TRICARE (military health coverage)
  • Veterans’ health care programs
  • Peace Corps Volunteer plans

Be aware that outside of the Marketplace, other policies be for sale that may look like health insurance (such as short term individual policies, or policies that only cover cancer.) These kinds of products are sometimes referred to as “excepted benefits.” They do not count as Minimum Essential Coverage.

 

Starting in 2019, there is no tax penalty for people who are not covered by Minimum Essential Coverage.