Health Care

The New Affordable Care Act Special Enrollment Period Still Offers 2015 Coverage

Written by Magaly Olivero
Published Apr 21, 2015 - [Updated Jul 23, 2019]
2 min read

It’s the last call to buy health insurance coverage for 2015!

If you just discovered you owe the 2014 tax penalty for being uninsured, you may qualify to buy health insurance for 2015 during a special enrollment period ending April 30.

This was the first tax season that Americans had to report their health insurance status or pay a tax penalty under the Affordable Care Act.

The tax-time special enrollment period applies to residents in the 37 states that use Healthcare.gov. Some state-run Marketplaces have similar tax-season extensions. Contact your local Marketplace or check out our interactive state map for information.

Here’s what you need to know about this tax-time special enrollment period:

You must acknowledge not realizing the implications of the tax penalty until after the regular open enrollment period ended on February 15, 2015.

You must owe the non-coverage tax penalty for 2014 – that’s $95 per adult and $47.50 per child (capped at $285 for a family) or 1 percent of taxable household income, whichever amount is greater. You’ll need to pay the 2014 tax penalty, even if you purchase coverage for 2015 during this special enrollment period.

You don’t need to have filed your 2014 taxes before enrolling during this special enrollment period – you just have to owe the fee.

You are currently uninsured. That means you can’t use this special enrollment period to change your existing health insurance coverage.

If any person in a household meets the criteria for the special enrollment period, everyone in the family can enroll for health insurance.

Purchasing health coverage now for the remainder of 2015 can lessen the tax penalty you’ll need to pay next year for the months you didn’t have coverage. The penalty will increase to $325 per person or 2% of household income, in 2015, whichever amount is greater.

Do you have more questions about the Affordable Care Act special enrollment period? TurboTax has you covered. You can get answers to your questions at TurboTax Health.

Magaly Olivero is an award-winning writer and has written for many national and regional media outlets, as well as corporate and nonprofit clients in the healthcare, tax and education industries. Her publishing credits include U.S. News and World Report, Newsweek, The New York Times, Working Woman, Better Homes and Gardens and the Connecticut Health Investigative Team. Magaly is a recipient of a National Journalism Fellowship from the University of California Annenberg School of Communication and a Health Coverage Fellowship from the Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts Foundation.