Obamacare bombshell: IT official says HealthCare.gov needs payment feature

[FarCenter]

33. I think that the payments are made monthly per policy, and accounted per SSN by the IRS

The subsidies are essentially an advance against your payment of 2014 income taxes which is paid to the insurance company. For example, if the unsubsidized policy is $500/month and the subsidy is $400 / month, the policy holder pays the insurance company $100 and the IRS pays the insurance company $400.

In April 2015, you will compute your actual subsidy based on your actual 2014 income and then remit to the IRS any shortage between the actual subsidy and the amount advanced.

If your estimate of income was too high, you will get a tax credit. If your estimate of 2014 income was too low, you will pay additional tax.

So all this has to be accounted for on a per taxpayer and per policy basis for the period during 2014 that the policy was in effect.