What I'm getting from the below is that IRS will accept/process your return if it's silent (you don't state whether you had coverage or not). I don't know what TurboTax says as dh still has not done our taxes :-( Iirc from last year, it asks you to check off which months you had coverage and you just wouldn't check any month and IRS would process even if you were silent. After it's processed, if you were later selected for audit, you would be liable for the penalty.
This year, the IRS put in place system changes that would reject tax returns during processing in instances where the taxpayer didn’t provide information related to health coverage.
However, the Jan. 20, 2017, executive order directed federal agencies to exercise authority and discretion available to them to reduce potential burden. Consistent with that, the IRS has decided to make changes that would continue to allow electronic and paper returns to be accepted for processing in instances where a taxpayer doesn’t indicate their coverage status.
However, legislative provisions of the ACA law are still in force until changed by the Congress, and taxpayers remain required to follow the law and pay what they may owe.
Processing silent returns means that taxpayer returns are not systemically rejected by the IRS at the time of filing, allowing the returns to be processed and minimizing burden on taxpayers, including those expecting a refund. When the IRS has questions about a tax return, taxpayers may receive follow-up questions and correspondence at a future date, after the filing process is completed. This is similar to how we handled this in previous years, and this reflects the normal IRS post-filing compliance procedures that we follow.
https://www.irs.gov/affordable-care-...lity-provision