Donovan -- <div><br></div><div>I just took a look at those numbers again (they didn't look right) and found that I made a mistake in my back-of-the-envelope corrections.</div><div><br></div><div>At a 3% rate of inflation, the family of two you described comes out over the 133%-of-poverty threshold, making her (based on her unmodified gross income) ineligible for Medicaid. Interestingly, she makes $184 dollars over the poorest possible individual that might have have to pay for insurance. This indicates that whomever you're relying on for your numbers invented her as the poorest possible person to have to pay for health care, receiving the lowest possible subsidy.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Unfortunately, however, while the health care bill eliminates certain exemptions for modified gross income (like child-care) for eligibility purposes, it includes an unconditional exemption equal to 5% of the poverty line, or a little over $750 in 2014 dollars. Consequently, she just barely scrapes under the wire for eligibility, and can receive Medicaid, which exempts her from the mandate.</div>
<div><br></div><div>-- ACS</div><div><br></div><div>* <a href="http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2010/03/19/the-health-care-reform-reconciliation-bill/">http://healthaffairs.org/blog/2010/03/19/the-health-care-reform-reconciliation-bill/</a></div>