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.