Proof of Health Insurance Tax Form: 1095-A, B & C

The proof of health insurance tax form you receive is either Form 1095-A, Form 1095-B, or Form 1095-C, and which one shows up depends entirely on where your coverage came from. Marketplace enrollees get the 1095-A. People covered through most insurers, Medicaid, Medicare, or a small employer get the 1095-B. Employees of larger companies get the 1095-C. Only the 1095-A requires you to do anything on your federal return.¹

Which Form You Get and Why

The IRS uses the 1095 series to track who had coverage during the year. Each form comes from a different type of issuer.

Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement. Sent by the Marketplace to anyone who enrolled through HealthCare.gov or a state exchange. It reports your monthly premiums, the second-lowest-cost silver plan premium in your area, and any advance premium tax credits paid on your behalf.
Form 1095-B, Health Coverage. Sent by insurance companies, Medicaid, Medicare, or small employers to confirm you had qualifying coverage. It lists the months you were covered and identifies each family member on the plan.
Form 1095-C, Employer-Provided Health Insurance Offer and Coverage. Sent by employers with 50 or more full-time employees. It shows what coverage your employer offered, whether you enrolled, and the months you were covered.²

You may receive more than one form in the same year. If you switched jobs, moved from employer coverage to a Marketplace plan, or had COBRA for part of the year, expect a form from each source that covered you.

What to Do With the Form at Tax Time

Do not attach Form 1095-B or Form 1095-C to your federal tax return. The IRS receives copies directly from the issuers. Keep the form with your tax records in case questions come up later.¹

You also do not need to wait for a 1095-B or 1095-C to arrive before filing. If you already know your coverage details from insurance cards, pay stubs, or your employer’s benefits portal, file on your normal schedule. The IRS has been clear that these forms may help you confirm your records but are not required to complete your return.¹

Form 1095-A is different. If you had Marketplace coverage with advance premium tax credits, you need the numbers on that form to complete Form 8962 and reconcile the credits before you can finish your return.

When Your Form Should Arrive

Form 1095-A shows up first. It is available in your HealthCare.gov account as early as mid-January and mailed no later than mid-February. To download it, log into your Marketplace account, select your 2025 application (not your 2026 application), and choose “Tax Forms” from the menu.³

Forms 1095-B and 1095-C are due to you by March 2, 2026, for the 2025 tax year. That deadline was permanently extended from the original January 31 date.⁴

One wrinkle with the 1095-C: employers now have the option of posting a notice on their website that the form is available upon request, rather than automatically mailing it to every employee. The notice must be posted by March 2, 2026, and the employer must send the form within 30 days of your request. If you expected a 1095-C in the mail and it never came, check your employer’s website or HR portal before assuming something went wrong.⁴

If a form is genuinely missing, contact the issuer directly. Call the Marketplace for a 1095-A, your insurance company for a 1095-B, or your employer’s HR department for a 1095-C. The IRS has its own copies, so a mismatch between what you report and what the issuer reported can trigger a letter asking for clarification.

Form 1095-A: Reconciling Your Premium Tax Credit

If you bought Marketplace insurance and received advance premium tax credits to lower your monthly premiums, filing Form 8962 with your federal return is not optional. The form compares the advance credits paid to your insurer during the year with the credit you actually qualify for based on your final income.⁵

The math goes one of two ways. If your income ended up lower than estimated, you may qualify for a bigger credit and a larger refund. If your income came in higher than estimated, you received more advance credit than you were entitled to and will owe some of it back. You pull the numbers straight from your Form 1095-A to complete Form 8962.⁶

If You Skip Form 8962

Skipping this form when you received advance credits is one of the most consequential filing mistakes. The IRS will send you a Letter 12C asking you to provide a completed Form 8962 and a copy of your 1095-A before it finishes processing your return, which delays any refund you are owed.⁷

The bigger consequence is what happens the following year. If you do not reconcile, you lose eligibility for advance premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions, and your Marketplace premiums jump to full price until you file the missing form.⁷

Repayment Caps Are Going Away in 2026

For the 2025 tax year (filed in 2026), repayment of excess advance credits is capped if your household income falls below 400 percent of the federal poverty line. The caps range from $375 for a single filer under 200 percent of the poverty line up to $3,250 for other filing statuses between 300 and 400 percent, with the exact figure depending on income band and filing status. At or above 400 percent of the poverty line, no cap applies and you repay the full difference.⁸

For the 2026 tax year, these caps disappear entirely. Regardless of income, you will owe back the full amount by which your advance credits exceeded your actual credit.⁹ That change matters if you apply for Marketplace coverage in 2026. Underestimating your income at application time carries much higher financial risk than it did in prior years, so it is worth taking the time to get the estimate right.

If You Were Uninsured All Year

At the federal level, there is nothing to report and no penalty to pay. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act reduced the shared responsibility payment to zero starting in 2019. You are still technically required by law to maintain minimum essential coverage, but the IRS cannot assess any penalty for failing to do so, and you do not need to file any health coverage forms with your federal return.¹⁰

State Mandates Still Require Proof

Five states and the District of Columbia enforce their own individual health insurance mandates with financial penalties: California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia. Vermont has a mandate on the books but does not impose a penalty. If you live in one of these jurisdictions, you need proof of coverage when filing your state return even though the federal penalty is zero.

Penalties are generally calculated as the greater of a flat dollar amount per household member or a percentage of household income, similar to how the original federal penalty worked. Exact amounts and calculations vary by jurisdiction. Massachusetts uses its own form, the 1099-HC, which insurance companies send to residents to verify coverage meets state standards. Other mandate states rely on the federal 1095 forms or their own state-issued documents.

If you moved between states during the year, check whether either state has a mandate. You may owe a pro-rated penalty in a mandate state for the months you lived there without coverage.

Special Situations

Medicare

Medicare Part A counts as qualifying health coverage under the Affordable Care Act. If you are enrolled in Medicare, you may receive a Form 1095-B, but you do not need it to file your federal taxes. Keep it with your records and take no action.¹¹

COBRA

COBRA coverage is reported differently depending on your former employer’s plan type. If the employer had a self-insured plan, your coverage shows up on Form 1095-C. If the plan was fully insured, the insurance carrier reports it on Form 1095-B. Either way, the coverage counts as minimum essential coverage and you treat it like any other 1095-B or 1095-C: keep it for your records, do not attach it to your return.

More Than One 1095-A

If you had more than one Marketplace plan during the year, perhaps because you changed plans mid-year or got married, you will receive a separate Form 1095-A for each plan. You still file a single Form 8962, adding together the monthly premium amounts and the advance credit amounts from all your 1095-A forms. For the second-lowest-cost silver plan premium in column B, the rules depend on whether the plans were in the same state and whether your household composition changed. The Form 8962 instructions walk through each scenario.⁸

How Long to Keep the Form

The IRS recommends keeping health insurance documentation for at least three years from the date you filed the return, which matches the standard period of limitations for tax assessment.¹² Your 2025 tax year forms, arriving in early 2026, should be kept until at least April 2029 if you file on time.

If you claimed the premium tax credit, holding on to Form 1095-A and your completed Form 8962 is especially important. These are the documents the IRS will request if it questions your credit amount. State tax agencies may have their own retention expectations that run longer than the IRS default, so err on the side of keeping records a bit longer than the minimum.¹²

1
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers about Health Care Information Forms for Individuals
2
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers about Information Reporting by Employers on Form 1094-C and Form 1095-C
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HealthCare.gov. How to Use Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-C and 1095-C (2025)
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HealthCare.gov. How to Reconcile Your Premium Tax Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. About Form 8962, Premium Tax Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. Reconciling Your Advance Payments of the Premium Tax Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8962 (2025)
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Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers on the Premium Tax Credit
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Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers on the Individual Shared Responsibility Provision
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Medicare.gov. Qualifying Health Coverage Notice and IRS Form 1095-B
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Internal Revenue Service. Topic No. 305, Recordkeeping