[Pearls Before Swine]

This puts me well over the 8% of income line so no more insurance and no penalty.

I'm not all up to date on the ins and outs of the penalty. Could you explain that?

[CA_soon_gone]

One of the “outs” in the penalty is if coverage is deemed too expensive. They defined anything over 8% of income as too expensive.

[EVO X]

I'm not all up to date on the ins and outs of the penalty. Could you explain that?

If you are required to have insurance and don't comply you will be assessed a 2.5% penalty on your income up to the national average of a bronze plan for 2016. To avoid being assessed the penalty, one has to have insurance or qualify for a hardship. The 8% rule is just one of several hardships. The 8% rule isn't very useful for younger people, but older people that fall just outside of the subsidy range (400-500 FPL) might be able to take advantage of it. If they qualify for the hardship, then they can go without or buy less expensive catastrophic insurance.