Is Health Insurance Legally Required?

While the Affordable Care Act did a lot of good for a lot of people, the fees that we had to pay for not having health insurance, when health insurance wasn’t always affordable, was one of the less popular features of the Act. That fee has been removed at a federal level, but where does that leave mandatory health insurance in Astoria, OR?

Long story short: You’re not required to carry any health insurance whatsoever on an individual level. Mandatory health insurance was never mandatory in the same way as, say, auto insurance, where you’re simply not allowed out on the street without it. Rather, you had to pay an extra tax as an incentive to get covered. Many states still have some form of taxation in place for people who do not carry health insurance, but Oregon is not one of those states. If you live in Astoria, OR and you don’t want health insurance, you don’t have to buy it.

But, it’s a different story for employers.

With under fifty employees, you can offer health coverage to your employees at your discretion. With fifty employees or more, working full-time or equivalent hours, you are required to provide health insurance for your team.

In short: On an individual level, nobody in Oregon is going to be required to buy health insurance. But employers with fifty full-time staff members or more will need to get their team covered.

That said, it’s not a great idea to go without health insurance. Get in touch with us at Linda Dugan Insurance and we’ll compare quotes to get you the coverage that you need. You want to make sure that you’re covered if something happens, so call us or go to the Linda Dugan Insurance website and let’s see what we can do for you.