90 Day Waiting Period, Do I Need Other Coverage?
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I currently have no health ins. coverage.
The health insurance from my new employer will not start for 90 days.
Do I need to get ins. for the 90 days?
If I do not purchase will there be a penalty since I will have ins. in about 80 days.
stephen
If I go uninsured for the 71 days I’ll have a coverage gap and then I enroll in my new job’s plan, will I have any issues with the new insurance company (preexisting conditions, etc)?
ObamaCareFacts.com
You generally have a “less than three months” coverage gap exemption, so the fee isn’t a problem. With your employer plan, you shouldn’t have a problem with pre-existing conditions, as the ACA banned denials for pre-existing conditions.
With that said, if it happens that you do not get employer coverage for any reason, you could be in a pickle (as to qualify for special enrollment in the marketplace you have to be dropped from other coverage, move, or meet another qualifying event, and only have a 60 day grace period from the time of the event).
Hope that helps clarify things. You can always get a marketplace plan in the in-term if you don’t want to take risks.
Julie
How do I figure the penalty for not having insurance for 4 months. (Before insurance started at new job) Left old job Feb 20th and new insurance started July 1st.
ObamaCareFacts.com
It is 1/12th of the total fee you would owe based on your income. It is calculated via a worksheet that comes with form 8965 I believe.
https://obamacarefacts.com/form-8965-health-coverage-exemptions/
Linda scott
Was without insurance from June until the middle of October I quit a job to move to Texas during this transition I received the job in July but had to wait the 90 days which would have been the middle of October so I called the Obamacare or whatever and I was told that if my employer offered me insurance that I had to take it and then I was eligible for the marketplace insurance now I’m being penalized this isn’t fair I didn’t have a job I couldn’t afford the insurance
EDWIN JOSE FRANCESCHI
Hi,
we moved from Puerto Rico and i started working on July, I wasn’t insured for the whole year because of this, well I was in Puerto Rico but i don’t think i get a 1095-b. Do i get fined?
Connie
I was 25 in 2016 until February 5th when I turned 26 so I lost the health insurance I had under my parents. They then signed me up for coverage and offered to pay for it so I was then covered for the month of March — however, something got screwed up with payment so I went uncovered unknowingly for the month of April, May, June, July, — but I started a new job May 11th anyway… and then I got coverage through my employer August 12 after they revised their plans for employees. Will I owe any sort of penalty…?
Erin
You went more than 90 days without coverage, so you might owe the fee for the months that you went without coverage. You would have been eligible to sign-up for the Marketplace or get Medicaid coverage depending on what state you lived in. How much you owe and whether you owe anything depends on some other factors as well. You don’t owe the fee is you made less than the filing threshold. If you tried to sign up for Medicaid, but were denied because your state didn’t expand, you are exempt from the fee. In fact, there are a number of hardship exemptions you can apply for, but typically the process takes time and there’s no guarantees. You’ll want to apply soon.
Brenda
My husbands company sold it business out on 12/30/16 at 1pm. They were told they have benefit coverage until 12/3/2017. He had to hire in as a new employee. The medical, dental, eye coverage will not go into effect for 90 days. Do we need to get insurance for the waiting period, until his insurance takes into effect? Please let me know as soon as you can.
Erin
Sorry for the delayed response, we get hundreds of comments and questions every week (even more during open enrollment).
Every person gets a 3 month coverage GAP exemption and a person is considered covered for the whole month if they are covered for even 1 day of the month. So, you don’t necessarily need to get coverage during the waiting period. However, because you aren’t being offered employer sponsored coverage during that period, you would eligible to apply for Marketplace insurance and receive any cost assistance for that coverage your income is eligible for. So, you may want to look into it and ensure that you have coverage during that period. You also get a special enrollment period for the Marketplace for 60 days following a loss of coverage (unless that loss was due to non-payment of premiums). Since you wrote “12/30/16” for when the business was sold and “12/3/2017” for when the coverage ended I’m thinking you meant “1/3/2017” for when the coverage ended, is that correct? That would mean your special enrollment period would end 3/3/2017.
Sherri K
Thank you very much for this answer. Now I can rest well tonight.
Laura Corrigan
Would like to know if as a tax payer and never on welfare..that I should be fined for getting a better job and having no health insurance for 90 days
Erin
Switching employer plans after changing jobs can be frustrating. Luckily, everyone gets a 3 month or less short-term coverage gap exemption when they file taxes. Also, timing is everything. You are considered covered for the entire month, if you were covered for at least one day during that month. So, if your employer coverage from a previous job or through the marketplace covered you through the end of the month during the month you changed jobs (this is common) and your 90 day wait at your new job ends in the middle of a month, you may end up with only 1 or 2 months that you were “uninsured” with regards to the Affordable Care Act. If you are going to hit the three full months without coverage because of a job change, consider paying for COBRA for at least 1 month to shorten the coverage gap.
As long as the coverage gap is a consecutive 3 months or less, you will simple report exemption Code B on tax form 8965
diane
so i took a new job that has a 90 probation period for health ins, called the market place and wont cover me until the 1 of the upcoming month leaving me with a 3 weeks no ins…how is this possbile
Dana Flowers
If my health insurance is over the 15th of Dec and I start a new job Dec 12th and there is 90 waiting will I be ok
victoria richard
what happens if my company offer me insurance but makes me wait 90 days then an additional 23 days to the first of the month. i started august 7, 2016 they said i cannot enroll until December 1, 2016 are they allowed to do this i thought with the new aca Obamacare they had to give it to you by the 90th day.???? i feel like i am being penalized and they are not compliant
Uninsured and pissed about it!
SO employers have the money, the insurance and the advantage! More 90 day waiting periods are going to pop up. AWFULLY BIG CATCH 22 you put usindividuals with no money, no insurance and no advantage, in!!!!!!!!!! And then penalize us on top of it. It’s enough to make me sick. Oh wait, I can’t get sick, because there is a GAP in insurance coverage. WHY DID YOU NOT MANDATE NO WAITING PERIOD????
Jeanette Hurst
my son quit his job to go to another one, but his insurance for the new job will not kick in for 6 month. He just told me this and he just past the 90 days. What can he do to get insurance, everyone has told him no matter what he is going to be fined $2,500 or 2% of his income. is that true. is there anything he can do, he has a new baby coming in Oct. he is 25 years old and just not up on the rules of health care and no one even told him at his old job or his new one. Please help me help my son.
Kate McMinn
My husband is switching jobs and his new job doesn’t offer insurance for 90 days. Will we get fined for not being covered?
ObamaCareFacts.com
You are automatically exempt for less than three months each year. So you can go 90 days under the right circumstances, but not if the stretch consists of three full months. Does that make sense? Learn more here. https://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-coverage-gap-exemption/
david baltus
So you are fully aware that most employers offer health after 90 days, yet instead of making the grace period 120 days , you deliberately made it 90. That way we all have to worry about whether or not we will be penalized for changing jobs.
This also means if we lose our jobs we have exactly no time to find a new one because if we spend any time finding work, we still have to wait 90 days when hired. This puts us in the position of having to find and pay for insurance, that we’re only going to hold for a few months, at a time we can least afford it. Not to mention having to deal with this at a time when we should be focused on finding work.
Great plan!
Rita Fleck
I began work at a new company the end of January with a 90 day wait period for insurance benefits. When the 90 days passed, I was told I had to wait for open enrollment.nnits now been four months and I was told the open enrollment paperwork is in the mail. Do I have any recourse?
Jean Merl
Can I enroll in Obamacare during the 90-day waiting period before my new job’s medical insurance takes effect? I was going to get COBRA but it’s way too expensive. If Obama care is not an option, what other choices do I have to stay covered?
thank you!
ObamaCareFacts.com
Yes you can, just make sure not to take tax credits that you’ll have to pay back. Your tax credit eligibility is based on total household income for the year (modified for deductions).
Gordon Short
We will need coverage for the 90 day waiting period til the new job insurance kicks in. What do we do? What is available?
ObamaCareFacts.com
The answer is almost always special enrollment, although short term is an option… and some qualify for Medicaid. Short answer, call healthcare.gov.
William
So employers aren’t required to comply with the penalty portion of the law by providing me insurance in less than 90 days after employment, and the penalty will be less than going and getting a one month insurance plan?
Sounds like a ponzi scheme that the insurance companies wrote with the government behind our backs. All this looks like is a money generating scheme.
Disgusting
Lance Gassen
With the new law does my employer have to wait 90 days or 60 or 30 days to offer health insurance?
ObamaCareFacts.com
90 day waiting period per the update (it changed from when the law was written).