Opinion ID: 223249
Heading Depth: 4
Heading Rank: 3

Heading: Individual Mandate's Minimum Essential Coverage Term

Text: The Act uses a wholly different termminimum essential coveragein connection with the individual mandate. Minimum essential coverage is the type of plan needed to satisfy the individual mandate. A wide variety of health plans are considered minimum essential coverage: (1) government-sponsored programs, (2) eligible employer-sponsored health plans, (3) individual market health plans, (4) grandfathered health plans, and (5) health plans that qualify for, and are offered in, a state-run Exchange. 26 U.S.C. § 5000A(a), (f)(1). Many of these plan types will satisfy the mandate even if they do not have the essential health benefits package and regardless of the level of benefits or coverage. The requirement of the essential health benefits package is directly tied to some of the insurance product reforms, but not the individual mandate. We turn to the Act's first component: the insurance reforms.