What Is a 1095-B Tax Form and Do You Need to File It?

The 1095-B tax form is a health coverage statement, not something you file. Your insurance company or a government program like Medicaid or Medicare sends it to confirm you and anyone on your plan had qualifying health coverage during the year. The IRS instructs taxpayers to keep it with their records rather than attach it to a return.¹ The information on it can still matter, especially if your state has its own coverage mandate.

What the Form Shows

Form 1095-B confirms that you had what the IRS calls “minimum essential coverage” for some or all months of the year. That category covers employer plans, individual market policies, Medicaid, Medicare, CHIP, TRICARE, and several other designated programs.²

Part I identifies the “responsible individual,” usually the primary policyholder, by name, address, and Social Security number. Part IV lists every covered person on the plan alongside monthly checkboxes showing which months each person had coverage. If someone was covered all twelve months, a single “all months” box gets checked instead.³

The form also carries a one-letter code identifying the coverage type: “B” for employer-sponsored, “C” for government-sponsored, “D” for individual market, and so on. When a covered person doesn’t have a Social Security number, the issuer can use their date of birth instead.⁴

Check the covered months and the names against what you actually had. Coverage date errors and wrong Social Security numbers do get corrected if you call and ask.

Who Sends It

Federal law requires every entity that provides minimum essential coverage to report that coverage to both the IRS and the covered individual.⁵ In practice, three types of organizations issue the form:

Health insurance companies, when you buy an individual plan outside the Marketplace or your employer provides a fully insured group plan.
Small employers with self-insured plans, meaning employers that fund their employees’ health benefits directly and have fewer than 50 full-time employees. Employers with 50 or more full-time employees are “applicable large employers” and use Form 1095-C instead.¹
Government agencies running programs like Medicaid, CHIP, Medicare, and TRICARE.⁵

Will It Arrive in the Mail?

Maybe not. Under current rules, insurers and employers can satisfy the requirement to furnish 1095-B forms by posting a clear notice on their website telling you the form is available on request. If you ask, they must send it within 30 days, or by January 31 of the following year, whichever is later. The website notice must stay up through October 15 of the year after the coverage year.⁶

For coverage during 2025, the deadline to furnish the form (to those who requested it or to everyone if the issuer still mails automatically) is March 2, 2026. That already includes an automatic 30-day extension from the original January 31 date, and no further extensions are available.⁶

If you want a copy, check your health plan’s member portal first; many carriers post the PDF there. If you can’t find it, call the member services number on your insurance card.

Why It Doesn’t Go With Your Federal Return

The Affordable Care Act originally imposed a federal penalty on people who went without health insurance, known as the individual shared responsibility payment. The Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017 reduced that penalty to zero for tax years beginning after 2018.⁷ With no federal penalty to enforce, the IRS has no reason to collect proof of coverage from individual taxpayers. The agency says plainly: “Do not attach Form 1095-B to your tax return — keep it with your tax records.”¹

Your insurer or program still files the form separately with the IRS. That reporting obligation is theirs, not yours.

When Your State Mandate Makes It Matter

A handful of jurisdictions enforce their own individual health insurance mandates with real financial consequences. As of 2026, California, Massachusetts, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and the District of Columbia all impose penalties on residents who go without qualifying coverage. Vermont has a mandate on the books but does not enforce a penalty for noncompliance.

The penalty structure in most of these jurisdictions works similarly. You owe the greater of a flat dollar amount per uninsured adult (with a reduced amount per child) or a percentage of household income, capped at the average cost of a bronze-level plan in your area. Short coverage gaps of one to three months are exempt in some jurisdictions.

If you live in one of these places, the monthly coverage boxes on your 1095-B feed straight into your state return. Your tax software will ask you to confirm which months you had coverage, and getting those months wrong can mean paying a penalty you don’t actually owe. If you moved between states during the year, check both states’ rules; a state mandate applies based on where you lived during the months in question, not where you file.

Don’t Confuse It With the 1095-A

Three 1095 forms exist, and only one creates a filing obligation for you.

Form 1095-A comes from the federal or state Marketplace if you enrolled in a plan there. If you received any advance premium tax credits, you must file Form 8962 with your return to reconcile them. Skipping that step can delay your refund, trigger an IRS notice, or affect your future credit eligibility.⁸⁹

Form 1095-B, covered here, comes from insurance companies, small self-insured employers, and government programs. Keep it; don’t file it.¹⁰

Form 1095-C comes from applicable large employers (generally 50 or more full-time employees) and goes to their full-time employees. Like the 1095-B, you keep it rather than file it.¹

If you bought insurance through HealthCare.gov or a state exchange, make sure you received a 1095-A. That’s the one you can’t ignore.

How Long to Keep It

The IRS recommends keeping tax-related records for at least three years from the date you filed the return they support. The window stretches to six years if you underreported income by more than 25%, and to seven years if you claimed a loss from worthless securities.¹¹ Three years alongside your W-2s covers most people. If you live in a state with a coverage mandate, holding onto it longer gives you a paper trail if the state questions a prior year.

1
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers About Health Care Information Forms for Individuals
2
Internal Revenue Service. Form 1095-B
3
Internal Revenue Service. 2025 Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B
4
Internal Revenue Service. Questions and Answers About Reporting Social Security Numbers to Your Health Insurance Company
5
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 6055 – Reporting of Health Insurance Coverage
6
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Forms 1094-B and 1095-B (2025)
7
Office of the Law Revision Counsel. 26 USC 5000A – Requirement to Maintain Minimum Essential Coverage
8
Internal Revenue Service. Instructions for Form 8962 (2025)
9
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1095-A, Health Insurance Marketplace Statement
10
Internal Revenue Service. About Form 1095-B, Health Coverage
11
Internal Revenue Service. How Long Should I Keep Records?