People with canceled health insurance plans were recently green lighted to renew those plans through October 1, 2016, or failing that, to purchase Obamacare catastrophic insurance, originally available only for those under 30 years of age. That much we knew.
But quietly as the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) released a "Hardship" form so individuals could purchase such catastrophic plans, a final qualifying category was added for those confronting "another hardship" in trying to obtain insurance, for which the applicant should "submit documentation if possible." (In all, there are 14 qualifying categories on the form, which is available here.)
Note that once you've submitted this form, you are effectively free from purchasing any health insurance, but as an added bonus, you can purchase "substandard" insurance or ACA catastrophic insurance.
This Mac-truck-sized loophole is shown in the image below, and it could well spell the death of the individual shared responsibility (aka individual mandate) provision of the Affordable Care Act (ACA):
