1. What is a 1095-C Form? A 1095 form is a little bit like a W-2 form. Your employer or insurer sends one copy to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) and one copy to you. A W-2 form reports your annual earnings. A 1095 form reports your health care coverage throughout the year.

2. Who is sending it to me, when, and how? Your employer or health insurance company (Kaiser enrollees only) should provide one to you either by mail or in person. They may send the form to you electronically if you gave them permission to do so. The State of Maryland will send these out by March 2, 2019.

3. Why are you sending it to me? The 1095 forms will show that you and your family members either did or did not have health coverage during each month of the past year. 

4. What am I supposed to do with this form? Keep it for your tax records. You don’t need this form in order to file your taxes, but when you do file, you’ll have to tell the IRS whether or not you had health insurance for each month of 2018.

The Form 1095-B or 1095-C shows if you had health insurance through your employer. Since you don’t actually need this form to file your taxes, you don’t have to wait to receive it if you already know what months you did or didn’t have health insurance in 2018. When you do get the form, keep it with your other 2018 tax information in case you should need it in the future to help prove you had health insurance.

5.  I have more questions—Who do I contact? An IRS website called Questions and Answers about Health Care Information Forms for Individuals (Forms 1095-A, 1095-B, and 1095-C) covers most of what you need to know: https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-act/questions-and-answers-about-health-care-information-forms-for-individuals.