20 Categories of Exemption Now Available for ObamaCare Individual Mandates - Homeless and Those Who Haven't Paid Their Electric Bill Added to Illegals and Prisoners

Federal regulators have issued their third round of regulations and commentary on who will not have to pay an Obamacare Individual Mandate Penalty - I mean "tax" if they don't buy insurance as the law mandates in 2014.  

The CBO estimates than only two percent of Americans will actually have to pay this tax after all of the gerrymandering, carve-outs and political favors have been handed out.   

The list now includes: 

• People who lack access to available plans on the state health exchanges (the prospects for Obamacare are so bad in some areas insurers won't consider participating) 
• People not paying federal income tax (roughly half of Americans) 
• Members of certain religious groups
• Members of healthcare sharing ministries
• Prisoners 
• Illegals
• Low income individuals who can't afford coverage
• Individuals with coverage gaps of up to three months (and 1 day of coverage is equal to one month so you can really have a gap of about 4.9 months) 
• Native Americans eligible for care through the Indian Health Service 
• People who have experienced "hardships". As for this catch all "hardship" exemption, HHS issued clarification as to what particular brands of vulnerability can and should be considered in exempting folks from Obamacare's bite. This exemption includes any person who: 

• becomes homeless;

• has been evicted in the past six months, or is facing eviction or foreclosure;

• has received a shut-off notice from a utility company;

• recently experienced domestic violence;

• recently experienced the death of a close family member;

• recently experienced a fire, flood, or other natural or human-caused disaster that resulted in substantial damage to the individual’s property;

• filed for bankruptcy in the last 6 months;

• incurred unreimbursed medical expenses in the last 24 months that resulted in substantial debt;

• experienced unexpected increases in essential expenses due to caring for an ill, disabled, or aging family member;

• Is a child who has been determined ineligible for Medicaid and CHIP, and for whom a party other than the party who expects to claim him or her as a tax dependent is required by court order to provide medical support. We note that this exemption should only be provided for the months during which the medical support order is in effect; or

• as a result of an eligibility appeals decision, is determined eligible for enrollment in a QHP through the Marketplace, advance payments of the premium tax credit, or cost-sharing reductions for a period of time during which he or she was not enrolled in a QHP through the Marketplace, noting that this exemption should only be provided for the period of time affected by the appeals decision. 

Full regulations on exemptions.   

HHS statement further explaining hardship exemption.