Are expat health insurance plans considered "qualified plans" for the Health Coverage Tax Credit?

[Nebulous Nomad]

One question I don't see answered anywhere (including IRS docs) is whether global expat health insurance plans are considered "qualified health insurance coverage" for the Health Coverage Tax Credit. In my case, the insurance company is Cigna Global and my policy provides comprehensive coverage worldwide, except USA.

So it is an "individual" plan that is not explicitly excluded from the HCTC. But I don't think Cigna Global or any other expat international health insurance company is licensed to operate in any U.S. state, and I'm not sure if that really matters or not here.

Does anybody have a solid answer to this?

[pk]

@Nebulous Nomad  assuming that you are US citizen/GreenCard holder AND that you do not live in the USA, there is no  US requirement for health care coverage  ( i.e. for ACA purposes ).  Thus  if you are covered by any local / international  health insurance, the cost of that  health insurance is deductible  for itemized deductions ( medical).    I do not know if this is what you are talking about.     For the health questionnaire, in such cases , you say you were covered for the all 12 months.

[Nebulous Nomad]

Thanks for replying. Yes, I'm a U.S. citizen living abroad at the present time. But, no, I'm not talking about ACA or deductions for insurance premiums. My question was regarding "qualified plans" specifically in the context of the Health Coverage Tax Credit (HCTC).

Under HCTC provisions, eligible individuals can receive a 72.5% tax credit to offset the cost of their monthly health insurance premiums (at least until 12/2021) if they have "qualified health coverage" and the subject taxpayer is one of the following:

• An eligible trade adjustment assistance recipient, alternative TAA recipient, or reemployment TAA recipient;
• An eligible Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation payee; or
• The family member of an eligible TAA, ATAA, or RTAA recipient, or PBGC payee who is deceased or who finalized a divorce with you.

I fit one of those categories, so of course I'm very interested in this refundable tax credit. 

[Critter-3]

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/qualifying-health-insurance-coverage

https://www.irs.gov/credits-deductions/individuals/enrolling-in-advance-monthly-payments-of-the-heal...

[Nebulous Nomad]

Thanks for your response. I've carefully examined all of that information already. As I mentioned, the IRS docs don't directly address my question. Does Intuit have a federal tax expert or tax accountant on staff who could chime in? Ultimately, it would be great to have my question and its correct answer included in the online Intuit help docs. In almost 50 years of filing my own taxes (many of those predating Turbotax), I have never had a tax question I couldn't correctly answer on my own by consulting IRS docs or Turbotax help. But now I have a weak IRS definition to deal with. 

Considering that Turbotax doesn't support uploading supporting doc PDFs along with an electronically submitted 1040 return, it would be a pain to send in the paper forms and supporting documentation only to find out that the credit is not permitted in my case.