There’s different people wearing different hats inside one building. Most people get screwed with hospital lab and diagnostic imaging. Think hospital gift shop, it doesn’t accept your insurance, so their lab and imaging “departments” might not either.

Rural coverage sucks. I worked in claims, helicopter transport claims were the worst. The biggest part was figuring out IF the chopper could have met up with a surface ambulance. Another was overshooting one hospital and continuing on to a much farther one, say a first class burn unit or even if the first one simply didn’t have a bed or accept the patient’s insurance.

/professional hat removed

The credit is advance-able, meaning you can apply for it, if you qualify based on your previous year and projected income, your premium will be reduced. Most who do not already have health insurance cannot afford it and will either receive Medicaid or this subsidy.

From the website made to educate people about the new law.

http://www.healthcare.gov/law/full/index.html

And the ACTUAL full text of the bill

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act

The part referring to the federal subsidy.

http://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act/Title_I/Subtitle_E/Part_I/Subpart_A

For an individual who makes more than $44k / year, yet still has trouble paying a bill of about $600 a month, is there any relief? Living in any major city on a salary like that would still make it incredibly difficult to take on the cost of health insurance. 

I want to believe that costs will come down, but I can’t imagine them coming down so low that anyone who can’t afford it today will be able to afford it when the ACA kicks in. No matter what things look like to a legislator in D.C., hitting someone with a new expense for several hundred dollars a month is going to be hard for them to handle.

I’m not “Those of us who’ve actually read the bill,” so any education from someone who has would be most welcome.

Currently that 400% line is $92,200 for a family of 4. Or for an Individual $44,680. Except in Alaska and Hawaii where the poverty line is set at a higher income level.

In 2008 countrywide the median income level for a 4 person household was $67,019. I imagine it’s gone down since then.

It’s called the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act for a reason

(I may have made a rash assumption about the amount of his income, where I live independent contractors have struggled since 2008. But that does not change the fact that the law stands to lower costs for much of America.)

How, exactly, is the magic trick of making health insurance that cheap going to happen? I’m all ears.

Instead of buying insurance, you could invest that $1,320.87 a month in a diversified portfolio. When bills arrive, pay them out of the investment.

Congratulations on your successful travel a decade into the future. You might want to check out the current global financial situation before making any major fiscal decisions.

Hey guys : in France, you pay around 30% of your wages in life insurance (minimum wage is around 1000€ for a full-time gig, full-time meaning 35 hours/wk (yeah, you read that right)). Your boss kicks in about the same. No job ? Student ? Retired ? The governement floats nearly the wole bill. You can get private insurance if you want, it can be interesting for some stuff (dental, vision, “comfort” treatments), but basically, if not having a procedure means that you’ll die or be severely handicapped, then you can have that procedure basically for free. I’m thinking surgery, chemo, MRI, all the crazy-expensive stuff.

Of course, times being what they are, that means our hospitals are being gutted – less manpower, less maintenance, less beds, etc. Public hospitals can be a bit dicey, and some procedures are better underwent in private clinics. But for the most part, healthcare is free or cheap.

I will do my damnedest NEVER to move to a country that doesn’t have such a system.