Is There a Penalty for Not Having Health Insurance in 2027? Five States Say Yes

If you are deciding whether to renew for 2027, the penalty question is usually the first one asked and the last one that matters. The federal answer is simple: the individual mandate penalty has been $0 since tax year 2019. Going without coverage costs you nothing on your federal return.

The state answer depends on where you file. Four states and the District of Columbia kept a penalty of their own. One state requires you to report coverage and charges nothing. The other forty-five have no mandate. Here is the whole map, then the part of the decision the penalty does not cover.

Exhibit A: The five jurisdictions that charge

Each figure below is the most recent one its agency has published, with the tax year it applies to. Later years are set by the same formulas and indexed; expect the next figures from each agency with that year's return. Every one of these jurisdictions caps the penalty at roughly the cost of a bronze plan, so the penalty never exceeds what coverage would have cost.

California. The greater of a flat amount, $950 per adult and $475 per dependent child for tax year 2025 (the Franchise Tax Board's sample table shows $950 for an individual, $1,900 for a couple, and $2,850 for a family of four), or 2.5% of household income above the state filing threshold, capped at the average bronze premium. The 2026 amounts arrive with the 2026 return (Cal. Rev. & Tax. Code § 61000 et seq.).

Massachusetts. Scaled to income and set each year by the Department of Revenue. For tax year 2026, a household above 400% of the poverty level owes $211 a month, or $2,532 for a full year; between 300% and 400% it is $117 a month, or $1,404; the bands below that run from $26 to $76 a month, and there is no penalty at or under 150% (Technical Information Release 26-1; M.G.L. c. 111M § 2, Schedule HC).

New Jersey. The greater of $695 per adult and $347.50 per child, or 2.5% of household income above the filing threshold, capped at the statewide average annual bronze premium. For tax year 2025 the Division of Taxation puts an individual's payment between $695 and $4,908, and a family of two adults and three dependents between about $2,433 and $24,540 depending on income (N.J.S.A. 54A:11-1 et seq.).

Rhode Island. The same structure as New Jersey, $695 per adult and $347.50 per child or 2.5% of income, capped at the average bronze premium. The Division of Taxation publishes the year's monthly figures with the return instructions (R.I. Gen. Laws § 44-30-101 et seq.).

District of Columbia. A flat amount per adult and per child, or 2.5% of income above the filing threshold, whichever is greater, capped at the average bronze premium. The current year's amounts are published by DC Health Link and the Office of Tax and Revenue.

Vermont requires you to report whether you had coverage on your state return (32 V.S.A. § 5841) and charges no penalty.

Exhibit B: The exemptions, which are the same everywhere

Every mandate above copies the old federal exemption list, so the same facts excuse the penalty in each. The three most people qualify for:

1. A short gap. A gap in coverage of less than three consecutive months is exempt. Two months without coverage between jobs costs nothing.
2. Unaffordable coverage. If the cheapest plan available to you would cost more than a set share of your household income (about 8% in most of these states; each publishes the figure), you are exempt for those months. With subsidies gone for households above 400% of the poverty level, more people clear this bar than did in 2025.
3. Income below the filing threshold. If you were not required to file, there is no penalty.

Hardship exemptions, religious exemptions, and incarceration round out the list. Each state's return instructions carry the form.

Exhibit C: What the penalty does not tell you

The penalty is the smallest number in this decision, and in forty-five states it is zero. The numbers that are not zero:

• What a visit costs when you pay for it yourself. That has rules of its own, and they apply to you the day coverage ends: a written Good Faith Estimate before scheduled care, a federal dispute if the bill comes in $400 or more above it (45 C.F.R. § 149.610), and the hospital's financial assistance policy, which in about a third of states has a statutory floor for uninsured patients.
• What a bad year costs. Under a marketplace plan the most you can owe for covered in-network care in 2027 is $12,000 for one person, $24,000 for a family. Without one, there is no ceiling except what the hospital will accept, which is where the financial assistance floor comes back in.
• How you get back on. Losing coverage opens a 60-day special enrollment window; so does a move, a marriage, or a birth. Choosing to drop coverage does not. If you go without and a diagnosis arrives in March, the next open enrollment is November, and the earliest start is January 1.

None of that is an argument for or against carrying insurance. It is the rest of the arithmetic, and the penalty is the smallest term in it.

Exhibit D: 2027 dates to know

Open enrollment for 2027 coverage on HealthCare.gov runs November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027. Enroll by December 15 and coverage starts January 1; enroll between December 16 and January 15 and it starts February 1. States that run their own marketplaces set their own windows within that range. A shorter window was adopted by rule in 2025 and vacated by a federal court in June 2026; the government has appealed, so check the dates on HealthCare.gov rather than on anything printed, including this.

Your Move

Find your line in Exhibit A. In forty-five states it is not there, and the penalty is zero.

If you are in one of the five: read the exemptions before the penalty. A short gap or unaffordable coverage may already excuse you.

Either way: the penalty is one line of the decision. The other lines are what care costs when you pay for it, what a bad year costs, and how you get back on. Your state's page has those, cited to the statute.

Find your state's rules → — the written estimate you can demand, the $400 dispute, the hospital financial assistance floor, and your state's mandate, on one page.

Penalty figures are as published by each state's tax agency through October 2026, labelled by tax year; Rhode Island's and DC's current schedules should be confirmed with the agency. BillFighter is a tool that helps you understand and fight medical bills. It is not a tax preparer or an insurance broker, and this is not legal, tax, or insurance advice.