How to Get Free or Low-Cost Health Insurance

Can I Buy a Short-term Plan on the Exchange?

No, short-term health insurance is not sold on ACA health insurance exchanges such as HealthCare.gov, and ACA subsidies cannot be used with short-term health insurance.

Short-term health plans are not considered minimum essential coverage.

If you experience a qualifying event that would typically trigger a special enrollment period where you could get an ACA-compliant plan, you would not be able to do so if the rules require you to have had minimum essential coverage in place before the qualifying event.

For example, even though the involuntary loss of coverage is a qualifying event that normally lets a person enroll in an ACA-compliant plan, the loss of a short-term plan does not.