One of the “outs” in the penalty is if coverage is deemed too expensive. They defined anything over 8% of income as too expensive.
I understand.
But that means that you would both be penalty-free and insurance-free.
The problem with that is that if you aren’t in some insurance pricing club, many of your medical charges are much higher than the real cost paid by the insurance company. That forces you to either bargain over every charge, or forego prudent medical service, or plead poverty.
One of the many ironies of O-care is that it was touted as a solution to the problem of bankruptcy due to sudden large medical expenditures. So, insurance was granted to those too poor to pay for it, at the cost of draining the middle class with exorbitant monthly premiums.