IRS issues final rules on Obamacare's 'individual mandate'

[Puzzledtraveller]

4. I'm not looking forward to this at all as a caseworker.

There are several things at issue here. It is not yet known just who may be eligible for subsidies, and if so what will that get them. There is the problem that most people have no idea what this law means for them. I did have a client ask me yesterday if she had to have insurance next year. I replied yes. If her employer does not provide it she will have the option of applying for medicaid, applying for a subsidy to buy from the exchange or seek the aid of navigators to purchase health insurance on the HBE. She was seriously worried about not being eligible for the aid, or the expanded medicaid we will be offering and thus leaving her to pay out of pocket for something she doesn't have the money for in the first place and if not may be assessed a penalty that could be deducted from her tax refund.

This law was supposed to help people, not harm them and I believe we will see these effects soon enough. Health insurance does not equate to health care. I have a health insurance through the state government I work for but unless I'm hit by something catastrophic is means little because I can't even afford the copay to get my allergy shots. How will a family making just enough to be over the subsidy bar not only pay out of pocket for health insurance much less actually be able to use it.