Well, I finally got to see the plans I qualify for on the federal exchange.

[BlueStreak]

117. Exactly. It is a huge Catch-22 affecting MANY folks. Everybody PLEASE take time to understand this.

The ACA covered all of this. There wasn't a gap between the exchange with subsidies and Medicaid, which is zero cost to the participants. That's exactly WHY the Medicaid expansion was part of this law. Expanded Medicaid took care of those with the least means, and then the exchanges with subsidies kicked in above Medicaid. And finally for the higher income people who can afford the full sticker price, the subsidies phase out, but you still get the advantage of the competitive exchange pricing.

That all got fouled up with the SCOTUS threw out the Medicaid expansion requirement. This is a huge deal for any lower income person in states that aren't expanding Medicaid. There is range of incomes where you get nothing unless you want to pay the full price of the policy that would be charged to a person making $100K a year.

And it can be a huge gap because most of the states that aren't expanding Medicaid are sticking to systems that are asset-tested. In my state, if you own more than a couple thousand bucks in assets (car, whatever) you cannot get into the Medicaid program even if you have absolutely zero income.