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© ReutersThe penalty for 2014 is $95 or 1 percent of a person’s taxable income, whichever is higher
Think you're exempt from Obamacare's individual mandate? Good luck proving it.

The health law's least popular component - the requirement to obtain insurance or face a tax penalty - also features a lengthy list of exceptions for people facing certain hardships like foreclosure, domestic violence or homelessness. Members of certain religious sects or Native American tribes also are exempt.

But if the online system for getting into Obamacare coverage is rickety, the system for getting out of the mandate doesn't even exist yet. HHS says it will take another month at least for the administration to finalize the forms.

The Obama administration estimates that as many as 12 million people will seek exemptions through the federal enrollment system. But if they try now through HealthCare.gov, a customer service representative will tell them that applications aren't available.

To make it even more confusing, not everyone who is exempt from the mandate will have to prove it via the exchange. Millions of people will have straightforward income-related exemptions - for example, low-income people in states that aren't expanding Medicaid. Their exempt status will get wrapped into their annual tax filing.

But for those who want to start the exemption process online - or who incorrectly think they have to purchase health insurance or be fined despite their personal circumstances - the lack of a pathway has been another example that critics cite about how the White House bungled the rollout.

"Instead of focusing on how to give big corporations a break from the law, the Obama administration should focus on making sure individuals know about their options for coverage," Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) said in a statement to POLITICO. "HHS's failure to clearly outline who is exempt on their website will likely have the most adverse effects on individuals who are most at risk."

There's another political impact: Some of the people making headlines with critical claims of huge premium spikes and unaffordable policies under Obamacare may actually turn out to be eligible for hardship or affordability exemptions - or may be eligible for a slimmed-down catastrophic coverage plan. But they can't know for sure until they apply.

"You could think that you have to [get covered] and it turns out that you don't," said health care consultant Kip Piper, a former adviser to the administrator of the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

The Department of Health and Human Services says the exemption application should be posted to HealthCare.gov within weeks - after a 30-day public comment period and a review by budget officials. "It's important to remember that the exemption applications apply to tax year 2014, so consumers will have ample time to apply," an agency official told POLITICO. It posted a proposal to take public comments on exemption applications Friday, and on Saturday it disseminated drafts of proposed exemption applications as well as information about documentation in cases where it will be required.

The 14 states running their own enrollment systems have chosen to let Washington process exemptions too, at least at the outset, so they are waiting too.

Washington state's marketplace includes a button labeled Federal Application for Exemptions, that redirects consumers to the homepage of HealthCare.gov. Oregon's exchange intends to process its own exemptions a year from now, but it will rely on the feds in the meantime.

Piper worried that Obamacare advocates have used the prospect of fines under the mandate to prod people to obtain coverage without emphasizing the breadth of exemptions. "The advocates and the plans and everybody has to be very careful about using [the mandate] as a stick because there are so many exemptions, and it is so situational. You almost have to ask people a thousand questions," he said.

The penalty for lacking insurance for all of 2014 is $95 or 1 percent of a person's taxable income, whichever is higher. The mandate is supposed to encourage enrollment, particularly among younger, healthier people who might be tempted to skip insurance.

Insurers declined to comment on the absence of an exemption application. "Our members are focused on educating people about how health insurance is changing and helping them enroll in coverage," said Robert Zirkelbach, spokesman for America's Health Insurance Plans.

Supporters of Obamacare emphasize that they're focused on pointing people toward affordable health coverage rather than ways to get out of being covered - but they say they're providing information about exemptions to "anyone who asks."

"The bottom line is that we encourage anyone who is uninsured to apply through the new marketplace, because you never know what kind of programs and help you might be eligible for until you apply," said Justin Nisly, spokesman for Enroll America, a group that backs the administration's health care drive.