Question about the Affordable Care Act

[Coyote_Bandit]

Let's assume a single person with no dependents and an annual income of $5,000 is shopping for ACA compliant health insurance. Further assume that they have substantial cash or investment assets. This hypothetical person lives in a state that has opted not to expand its Medicaid program under the ACA.

Several questions:

(1) Does this person qualify for tax credits/subsidies for ACA compliant health insurance?

(2) Will this person be disqualified from receiving such tax credits/subsidies by means testing or income verification because they have assets?

(3) Will this person be able to choose to purchase any available ACA compliant health insurance policy without jeopardizing any subsidy available to them? Put another way, can any available tax credit or subsidy be applied to the purchase of any plan even if the buyer is also required to contribute additional funds to make premium payments?

Know someone who is retired at 60 and a full-time volunteer for a non-profit who is in a similar situation and getting very conflicting answers and guidance regarding these issues.

Would appreciate any referral to information that might clarify.

Thanks.

[Sgent]

1. Answers

1) No -- their income is too low. The Medicaid expansion was supposed to give these people Medicaid, but most states which don't have excahnges refused to expand Medicaid.

2) There is no asset based means testing for subsidies, income only. Same with Medicaid in this case.

3) Yes -- the subsidy is exactly that, a dollar amount. They can use it as a credit to purchase any plan they want, but will have to make up the difference between the subsidy and cost of the plan.

As to information, they should sign up for an account through healthcare.gov, it will walk them through all of these issues, their eligibility, etc.

[LynnTTT]

2. Many resources

You don't have to get into the healthcare.gov website to get answers. try "local health.healthcare.gov" or the fabulous "kff.org" and search for subsidy calculator. The Kaiser Family Foundation has tons of into.
You have to get into the federal site to actually sign up, but lots of accurate info is out there to get answers