Not so. There are a lot of exemptions,  one being a financial hardship that exempts you from having to buy insurance and exempts you from paying the fine if your insurance costs more than 8.1% of your income.  You can apply for it now to exempt you for 2017. Form and instructions on healthcare.gov  Once you get the exemption back which takes about a week it allows you to buy a catastrophic plan, but we have non available in Alaska. The exemption does not help you get any coverage but does keep the government from taxing you cause you can't afford insurance.