Obamacare penalty on International travel

[pranaydsh]

So, I am on H1B visa and was on a trip to India Feb-March 2016. During this time, I didn't have health insurance in US since I figured it wouldn't be even be applicable. I wasn't also covered in January. Do I have to pay Obamacare penalty ? It'd be kinda harsh if I have to considering that even if I got insurance for that period, it wouldn't cover me for trips outside US, making it completely useless.

Note that I do know that the new administration isn't enforcing the penalty. However, it's still required by law to pay the penalty. I don't want to end up dealing with legal ramifications for not paying the penalty if I'm supposed to.

Thanks for the help.

[Pearl1]

You will have to pay penalty for 3 months from January through March 2016. Here is the link from healthcare.gov which explains gap exemptions in coverage.
https://www.healthcare.gov/exemptions-tool/#/results/2016/details/short-gap