If your employer does not provide you with healthcare insurance (or you are unemployed), you will be REQUIRED to buy that insurance on your own, with your own money. If your income is below a yet to be determined amount, you will be eligible for a tax credit which you can only use to buy insurance at a state-run exchange in the state in which you live. In order to get the tax credit, you must enroll in Medicaid. Following me so far? Good. Because here’s whete it gets complicated. More than half of the states are refusing to set up exchanges and are suing the Federal government to put an end to this. The Federal government only fully funds the state-run exchanges for the first year. The percentage it pays drops the next two years, then disappears altogether. But I digress…
So, you’re back to appying for Medicaid. Except, there is a problem with that, too. Remember when the Supreme Court ruled last year that the new law was Constitutional? Well, they also ruled that the individual states did NOT have to expand Medicaid, which basically was the backbone of the Affordable Care Act. So, you can APPLY for Medicaid, but you won’t necessarily be accepted because your state can’t afford to have anyone else on Medicaid.
Which means you’re back to paying for healthcare insurance on your own. You will have to wade through the dozens of options offered by every insurance company that can lawfully operate in your state. Don’t worry….I’m sure each will send that information directly to your home, since they will be able to find out from the government who doesn’t have employer-provider insurance.
And if you decide that it’s too much trouble and/or you can’t afford it? Well, there’s a penalty, er…a tax…for that. Which will be collected and enforced by the IRS.