OK, the Affordable Care Act makes me feel 100% better about losing my job.....

[Live and Learn]

53. This might help

What if I can't afford insurance under health care reform?
A guide to hardship exemptions

Read more: http://www.netquote.com/health-insurance/news/health-care-reform-hardship-exemptions.aspx

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When the cheapest option is still too expensive, you can ask for an economic hardship exemption to avoid a tax penalty. According to the nonprofit education group OpenCongress.org, if the cheapest health care plan available on your state's insurance exchange would cost more than 8 percent of your annual income, you would be exempt from the penalty for not having coverage.
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Hardship exemptions tie into other aspects of the health care reform law. You may have already heard about the subsidies that some Americans will get to help pay for coverage. These subsidies, which will come in the form of tax credits, will be granted to those whose income is between 133 percent and 400 percent of the federal poverty level, according to Kaiser.
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Details about many aspects of the health care reform law still are being worked out. Massachusetts, the only state that already has a health insurance mandate, has a variety of ways to qualify for a hardship exemption. According to the state's health care laws, residents may qualify for hardship waivers if, during the year, they:

•Were homelessness, had than 30 days of overdue rent or mortgage payments, or received an eviction or foreclosure notice.
•Received a shut-off notice for utilities or had utilities shut off.
•Had non-cosmetic medical or dental out-of-pocket expenses, excluding premium payments, totaling more than 7.5 percent of income.
•Experienced domestic violence, the death of a spouse, or an aging parent or ill child who required full-time care.
•Experienced a flood, fire or other major natural disaster.
•Were unable to buy food or clothing because of the requirement to buy health insurance.


I heard Randi Rhodes claim that in order to be forced to pay the penalty, a family of 4 would need to make over 90 something thousand a year. Not sure where she got that from but I think the point is that very few will actually have to pay the penalty. This article also suggests just getting catastrophic insurance which is much cheaper to avoid a penalty.


In addition, per Opencongress.org (april, 2010)

http://www.opencongress.org/articles/view/1789-Health-Care-Affordability-and-the-Individual-Mandate-

But, if the cost of health care in a state is similar to what it is in Massachusetts right now, the subsidies levels would look like this:

◦An individual earning $15,000 would receive $4,188 from the government, which more than covers the full cost of all bronze plans an the cheapest silver plan.
◦An individual earning $23,000 would receive $3,039 from the government, which would cover cover all but $110 of the annual cost of the cheapest bronze plan, meaning that they could have monthly premiums as low as $10.
◦An individual earning $33,000 would receive $1,353 from the government, which means they would be required to pay $1,803 for the cheapest bronze coverage, or a monthly premium of $150.25.