A Guide to Obama-Care

1 ©Resume to Referral, 2014.

If we haven’t been affected by it personally, then we’ve probably read about it,

and most likely many times over – namely, the fact that, in its current state, the American

health care system is broken at best. If we tallied off all the system’s weaknesses, we’d

probably create a hundred-item list, if not longer. For the sake of time, why don’t we hit

on some of the big faults: first thing that comes to mind – the cost of health care in

America is exorbitantly overpriced; next, health care in this country is more often than

not designed to be profit-driven rather than care-driven; at the same time, the American

public oftentimes has little protection from unfortunately common insurance practices

such as denying coverage to the insured because of pre-existing conditions or denying

coverage when an insured becomes sick.

Whether it be the dangerous vulnerability of America’s uninsured class, which in

2012 numbered roughly 45 millioni, or the extremely exorbitant cost of health care in

general – a case in point, a recent New York Times article noted that America’s cost of

delivering a newborn is the most expensive in the world, with a whopping price tag of

$50,000 dollars for a C-section birthii – the degraded health care system in this country

represents not only a major impediment to the economic health of the nation, it also

represents a serious threat to the country’s continued economic recovery and to the well-

being of a significant portion of America’s populous.

However, in 2010, legislation was passed in Congress and signed into law by

President Obama aimed at significantly correcting and strengthening this broken system

that we know as American health care. It was a piece of legislation that many, if not all

of us, read about. A piece of legislation entitled Obamacare, otherwise known as the

Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) or the Affordable Care Act

(ACA).

Now Obamacare was and is indeed very ambitious in its power and reach. It’s

intended to affect every American’s health care coverage in some shape or form.

Despite this fact, many Americans – indeed, nearly a majority of Americans – know very

little about what the law covers, let alone know that it’s currently in force. A couple


enlightening statistics to bolster the point: a recent poll conducted by the Kaiser Family

Foundation found that 42% of Americans are unaware that stipulations under Obamacare

are currently in effect as law. In fact, 12% of Americans believe that Congress repealed

the law.iii

Both these findings are pretty alarming considering that Obamacare represents the

most significant overhaul of the American health care system since the introduction of

Medicare and Medicaid in 1965.iv

Obamacare has been an extremely hot political issue, even before it was written.

And part of the reason for the ignorance surrounding its provisions may be because the

bill has been a magnet for so much political talk from parties both for and against the law,

some of that talk being less informed than others.

But, here’s the truth – with Obamacare’s mandate that all Americans be covered

by health insurance coming into effect on January 1, 2014, and with a second Obamacare

mandate that employers of a certain size provide health coverage for their employees

coming into effect in 2015, it’s incredibly vital that all Americans begin learning about

what Obamacare does and how it has or will affect their own personal health care

coverage.

This series of articles on Obamacare was written with that purpose in mind –

namely, to provide readers a better understanding of the bill by giving a clear, concise

and, most importantly, unbiased explanation of its primary regulations and reforms.

Now the intended audience of this article series is jobseekers. So, the breakdown

and explanation of Obamacare provided here will be directed toward members of that

audience, with parts of the bill that may hold particular interest for jobseekers given

special attention and a more detailed description.

Regardless of the article’s intended audience, the following discussion on

Obamacare is guaranteed to be as unbiased and non-political as possible.

Let’s begin by talking a little bit about what Obamacare truly aims to do and why,

if the bill was made into law in 2010, many Americans feel like nothing’s changed in the

health care world.

First and foremost, let’s put this misconception to rest: neither Obamacare as a

whole nor any of its individual regulations or mandates have been repealed in any way by


Congress or any other legislative body. Yes, the implementation of certain Obamacare

mandates, such as its Employer Mandate, has been delayed, and we’ll discuss that in

greater detail later on. But, to be clear – save for a few exceptions, all scope and power

vested in Obamacare has remained in tact since the time Congress first passed it and

President Obama officially signed it into law on March 23, 2010.

So, you may be asking, if Obamacare is currently in force as a national and state

law, then why does it seem like nothing’s changed in American health care since the law

was passed in 2010?

That’s a fair question and it can be answered with a reasonable and

understandable explanation. As mentioned earlier, Obamacare is a pretty complicated

bill, and what makes it even more complicated is that it’s composed of many individual

provisions, a number of which have different trigger times for when they become

enforceable law. For example, although Obamacare was passed in 2010, its requirement

that all Americans have a minimum amount of health care coverage or else face a penalty

will not be implemented and enforced until January 1, 2014. Similarly, the act’s mandate

that employers of a certain size provide health coverage to their workers has a 2015

trigger date.

There are a number of reforms, however, that have already become implemented

as law. However, the reason why these reforms may not be as apparent to the public is

because many of them affect the insurance industry, in a backend area that is not as

readily seen by the general public.

But, to be clear – Obamacare seeks to radically change the American health care

landscape in the next ten years. More specifically, Obamacare promises to enact reforms

that’ll provide quality, affordable health insurance to the 45 million uninsured

Americans, while at the same time, reducing the growth in national health care spending.v

So, how does Obamacare exactly plan to do that? Well, why don’t we dig in a

little further, into the actual meat of the bill, and get a better feel for all its major

provisions and health care reforms.

As mentioned, Obamacare is a pretty complex piece of legislation. It’s 906 pages

long and many of those pages are dense with complicated and oftentimes circular-

seeming regulatory speak.


So, being provided a breakdown of Obamacare, one that’s simple, clear and

unbiased, is critical to gaining some sort of understanding of the bill without going into

its fine print. That’s what the following section aims to do – namely, provide a summary

breakdown of Obamacare’s major stipulations, with special attention paid to those

stipulations that may especially influence jobseekers. Let’s dig in.

When President Obama and his administration designed Obamacare, they realized

that the alarming rise in health care cost was not the only issue that had to be corrected in

America’s health care system. They also understood that the insurance industry needed

to be reformed; and in particular, certain industry rules and practices that were harming

the insured, i.e. the American people, needed to be eliminated, entirely and without

question.

It’s for this reason that reforms to the health insurance industry make up a major

portion of the Obamacare bill. And indeed, if it hasn’t already done so, Obamacare will

drastically alter the health insurance landscape – and alter it in the way that brings

considerable more protection and representation to the American people.

Now Obamacare authors in a lot of smaller industry reforms, and most of these

will not be covered here. However, a good reference for reviewing all industry changes,

big and small, is provided by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, at this

following webpage: http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html.

One thing’s for certain – it’s important that people have at least some idea of what

insurance reforms are being made. After all, knowledge like that can come in handy if

there ever happens to be a claim dispute with a health care provider.

Why don’t we take a look at some of the major industry reforms authored by

Obamacare.

It’s unfortunate that this stipulation won’t be effective until January 1, 2014, but

nonetheless, when it goes into effect as law, this industry reform will bring a heightened

amount of protection to the American public.

http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html


The stipulation states that beginning on January 1, 2014, insurance companies

will be prohibited from discriminating against or charging higher premium rates for any

policyholder based on either a pre-existing condition or gender. vi

Charging higher premiums because of gender and because of pre-existing

conditions has been a commonplace practice in the insurance industry for years. And in

the case of pre-existing conditions, many times these conditions were excluded all

together from being covered. Obama and his administration were not alone in believing

both these practices to not only be unfair, but to be opposed to the very concept of having

health care insurance. Undoubtedly, many Americans will breathe a big sigh of relief on

January 1 of next year when both these discriminatory practices will be formally and

finally against federal law.

Of course, as with any major change, there are always lingering hang-ups. And

when it comes to this stipulation and its enforcement, there is one hang-up – namely, that

when the reform commences in 2014, there may be some individual plans in the country

that will be considered ―grandfathered‖ plans. And any ―grandfathered‖ plans may not

be required to cover pre-existing conditions.

If you have an individual health plan (i.e. one that you bought yourself and not

through an employer) and you haven’t reviewed its terms of coverage recently, it would

be in your best interest to check with your insurer to make sure that your coverage is not

one of these grandfathered plans.

The industry term for this practice is called rescission. Rescission in the health

care industry is the choice made by a health care provider to terminate a policyholder’s

insurance policy and thereby terminate the health care provider’s responsibility for

paying the policyholder’s health care costs. Prior to Obamacare, health care providers

rescinded policies in in instances when some sort of concealment, material

misrepresentation or material breach of warranty was committed on the part of the

policyholder.

At least that’s what the insurance industry claimed. However, in 2010, discovery

of the use of rescinding to terminate a policyholder’s coverage, not because of

misrepresentation or concealment, but because the policyholder’s illness was too

expensive to pay for inspired Obamacare to make the practice illegal as of September

2010.


The Obamacare stipulation states, in more defined terms, that all health care

providers are prohibited from dropping policyholders if or when they get sick. This is a

federal law and it protects all insured, regardless of age, location or gender.

Despite the recent gains in the economy, the job market still looks grim, and that’s

particularly the case for recent college graduates. Recent graduates will be very glad to

hear, therefore, that, beginning as of September 2010, if they are listed as dependents on

their parent’s insurance policy, they can remain on their parent’s policy all the way up to

their 26th birthday. As an added provision, as dependents they are not required to live

with their parents, nor are they required to be included on their parent’s tax return, or be a

student or even be single (yes, married young adults under the age of 26 can still be a

dependent on their parent’s health care plan).

Although this Obamacare provision is not as widely sweeping as the two

previously mentioned provisions, it certainly is influential and it certainly has provided –

and will continue to provide – health care coverage to a greater portion of Americans. In

fact, in 2010 it was estimated that an additional 1.2 million Americans would gain health

benefits as a result of this new requirement.vii

It was mentioned in the Administration’s press release published at the time of the

requirement’s enactment that, contrary to the general belief that young adults do not need

health insurance, one in four young adults actual has an illness requiring health

coverage.viii

Thanks to Obamacare, if they are listed as dependents on their parent’s

health care plan and are younger than 26, these young adults can now breathe a little

easier.

Beyond providing health coverage to a greater number of Americans, in signing

Obamacare into law, Obama and his administration also aspired to raise the average level

of quality of health care coverage. With this in mind, they sought to guarantee that

certain key health care benefits be provided in every single policy offered in the country.

They labeled these key health care benefits as ―essential benefits‖ and, as of January 1,

2014, their inclusion in all health care policies offered in America is a mandatory

benchmark for all carriers to uphold.

We’ll discuss in greater detail what these benefits are in a later section.


As mentioned, Obamacare has or will enact a number of other reforms to the

health care insurance industry, a full list of which can be reviewed at

http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html.

For ease of reference, here’s a sum-up of some of the other industry reforms that

already have been made or will be made by Obamacare:

- As of September 2010, health care providers are prevented from

imposing lifetime caps on the previously mentioned ―essential‖

benefits for all new policies.

- As of September 2011, all health care providers must notify the public

when they plan on increasing premiums on either group or individual

insurance plans by more than 10%.

- And as of September 2011, every health care provider must establish

an appeals process, which means that they can no longer turn down an

appeal from a policyholder without providing that policyholder an

opportunity to legally and formally appeal the decision.

Out of all the health care reforms authored in by Obamacare, Obamacare’s

Individual Mandate may be the one which has provoked the most criticism from

deterrents and, arguably, it’s the mandate that has been, and most likely will be for some

time, the source of most confusion.

Specifics regarding Obamacare’s Individual Mandate – in particular, its creation

of the Health Benefits Exchanges (HIX’s) – will be a topic of a later article. For right

now, we’ll cover in broad strokes what this stipulation states and what it intends to do.

Obamacare’s Individual Mandate states that:

By January 1, 2014, every American citizen will be required to have a minimum

amount of health insurance, which may be provided either through an employer, through

the new Health Exchange (HIX) system which is to be set up by the government, or

through Medicaid.

Any American citizen who does not have a minimum amount of health coverage

will be charged with an annual penalty of either $95.00 dollars or 1% of that citizen’s

http://www.hhs.gov/healthcare/facts/timeline/timeline-text.html


income, whichever is greater. This annual penalty tax will rise in 2016 to a minimum of

$695.00 dollars (or $2,085 dollars for families) or 2.5% of income, whichever is greater.

It was mentioned earlier that the goal of Obamacare is twofold – first, it intends to

enact certain essential reforms within the health insurance industry; and second,

Obamacare seeks to provide quality, affordable health care to all U.S. citizens. This

Individual Mandate aims at achieving the second goal and truly, once and for all, brings

health care coverage to all Americans.

Many people who are unfamiliar with this new requirement will balk at the idea

of forcing Americans who are uninsured to purchase a minimum amount of health care.

However, as point of clarity, this mandate will not affect those people who already have

health care coverage provided through their employer. This section of the population,

roughly 44% of the American population, will be allowed to keep their employer-

provided coverage as is, with little to no change.

As for those people without coverage, either through an employer or otherwise, if

they do not qualify for Medicaid, then, yes, this section of the population will have to

purchase a minimum amount of health coverage or else face the above-mentioned

penalty. However, the proposition has a winning point – namely, through Obamacare,

the federal government will be empowered to provide subsidies on coverage premiums to

those Americans who qualify.

So, what is the qualification breakdown? Well, it’s based solely on income and

here are the details: those who make above 100% and less than 400% of the federal

poverty level will be in the income bracket to qualify for a federal subsidy on their health

coverage. 400% of the 2013 Federal Poverty Level for a family of 1 is $45,960 and the

subsidy will be on a sliding scale based on earned income. Thus, anyone with an income

below this amount and above $11,490 (which is 100% of the 2013 Federal Poverty

Level) will be able to get help from the federal government if they need to acquire health

care coverage.ix

If you want a more detailed look at the federal poverty guidelines, this webpage

provided by FamiliesUSA offers a great table reference:

http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-

guidelines.html.

Now the question remains – how will uninsured Americans obtain this newly

required health care coverage? Will they have to buy the coverage from a private

insurer? Well, the answer is yes and no. The Obama administration understood that in


mandating that every American have a minimum amount of health care, they needed to

provide a more standardized and more easily accessible way to purchase coverage.

With this need in mind, Obamacare created a completely new marketplace for

purchasing health care, a marketplace which would be easier to track and regulate and

one which, ideally, would create a higher amount of competition amongst the various

private health care providers. Higher competition among health care providers means

better premium rates for the public.

Thus, along with mandating that every American have health care coverage,

Obamacare created the Health Insurance Exchange (HIX) system – an online

marketplace, either run by states or the Federal government, where Americans can go to

buy health care coverage from private health care providers who will compete to cover

them.

Now the HIX program is big and it’s expected to dramatically change the nature

of the health care industry. We’ll discuss the program in detail in a later article, but for

right now, it’s important to know that the HIX program is set to begin its very first

enrollment in October of this year, nationwide.

Now that we know more about Obamacare’s Individual Mandate, a question may

be asked – where does the 100%/400% poverty level mark leave those uninsured

Americans who make less than 100% of the poverty level? How are they ever going to

afford the premiums on this newly required health care coverage?

It’s a good question and it leads to the second arm of the Individual mandate –

that arm being a required expansion of Medicaid.

Understanding that forcing all uninsured Americans to pay for health care

coverage could pose a tremendous financial burden to those people who live in poverty,

in 2010, when Obamacare became law, it mandated that eligibility for Medicaid, the

national health program for families and individuals with low income, be expanded.

Obamacare raised the threshold for Medicaid qualification to 133% of the poverty

level. Thus, any individual or family who earned 133% of the federal poverty level or

less would be eligible to receive health care through Medicaid, free of any premium cost.

As mentioned, Obamacare successfully enacted this Medicaid expansion in 2010.

Unfortunately, in 2012, a Supreme Court decision in National Federation of Independent


Business v. Sebelius ruled that individual states did not have to follow Obamacare’s

Medicaid expansion requirement and could decide themselves whether or not they should

expand Medicaid in their state and, if so, by how much. Some states unfortunately ruled

against expanding Medicaid in their state, which in effect created a coverage gap in these

states, since federal subsidies on health care purchased through the HIX program are not

available to those below the 100% poverty level.

In July 2013, The Advisory Board Company, a national health care think tank,

created a graphical representation showing which states opted out on the Medicaid

expansion and which states opted in. The graphic is quite helpful and can be seen here:

http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/Resources/Primers/MedicaidMap.

Besides Obamacare’s requirement that all uninsured Americans obtain health care

coverage by 2014, nothing’s been more controversial than Obamacare’s second major

mandate – namely, its Employer Responsibility Mandate.

Many of us already have a vague idea of what the mandates states and what it

intends to do; but, why don’t we add a little clarity and detail to the picture.

Obamacare’s Employer Responsibility Mandate, which when Obamacare was

passed, was set to begin on January 1, 2014, is a reform that requires all businesses with

more than 50 full-time employees to provide health care coverage for those employees or

else face a penalty tax.x In addition, the employer-provided health care coverage must

meet the Essential Benefit Requirements mandated by Obamacare, which was discussed

earlier in this article.

To add further detail to the picture, a ―full-time‖ employee is defined under

Obamacare as, with respect to any month, an employee who is employed on average at

least 30 hours of service per week. Any business therefore with more than 50 of this type

of employee, and which elects not to offer health coverage to its staff, will be subject to a

penalty tax of a maximum of $3,000 per employee.

Now, as mentioned, this mandate was initially scheduled to begin on January 1,

2014. In July of this year however, the Treasury Department announced that it would

delay the implementation of the Employer Mandate until 2015. The reason provided for

the delay was to give affected companies more time to get their staff on a health plan.

Now, like the Individual Mandate, Obamacare’s Employer Requirement Mandate

has been particularly controversial, in part, because many opponents argue that requiring

http://www.advisory.com/Daily-Briefing/Resources/Primers/MedicaidMap


businesses to offer health care coverage to their staff will make them more reluctant to

hire new employees, which will dampen the national hiring rate and, in turn, the national

economic recovery. Some argue that, worse yet, the requirement could force some

businesses to turn their full-time employees into part-time employees so as to avoid the

50, full-time employees requirement threshold.

In a later article, we’ll discuss both the finer details of the Employer Mandate, as

well as how valid some of these arguments are.

Obamacare seeks not only to provide affordable health care coverage to millions

of people who were previously lacking it, it also mandates that, beginning on January 1,

2014, all health coverage offered in the United States, either privately through insurance

companies or publicly through the Health Exchange System, include a list of required

benefits.

The full list of new required benefits, as written in the bill, is quite extensive, but

here are some of the highlights:

- Emergency Services

- Hospitalizations

- Laboratory Services

- Mental Health and Substance Abuse Treatment

- Outpatient or Ambulatory Care

- Maternity Care

- Pediatric Care

- Prescription Drugs

- Preventive Care

- Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services

- Vision and Dental Care for Childrenxi

Beginning on January 1, 2014, all coverage offered in the United States must

include these minimum benefits, regardless of type of health plan, premium amount, or

age or gender of the insured. Thus, any insurer who is found refusing to honor these

benefits will be breaking federal law.

It’s important to know that, as added protection to the American public, when

Obamacare was passed in 2010, it introduced a Rapid Appeals Process. The process

provides any insured the ability to appeal an insurance company’s decision on their

health coverage to an independent reviewer and receive a response within 72 hours. In


turn, this means that after January 2014, any insured who suspects that their health

coverage does not include the required benefits listed above or, worse, any insured who is

denied the benefits above by an insurer, can make an appeal and be swiftly defended.

One of the most concerning things about the implementation of the Obamacare

reforms is that so many Americans know so little about arguably its most significant and

wide-ranging one – namely, its implementation of the nationwide Health Benefits

Exchange (HIX) Program. It’s concerning indeed considering the fact that the Health

Benefits Exchange Program is scheduled to begin its enrollment – nationwide – on

October 1, 2013.

Hopefully through the Health Exchange section in an earlier article, you now

understand, at least generally, what the Exchange Program is and what it intends to do

(which is, namely, assist in fulfilling Obamacare’s goal of extending health coverage to

every single American.)

However, the specifics of how the Program works and whether or not it will affect

your own health care situation may still be pretty vague. And we’re talking about

insurance here – nothing is ever easy or simple, right?

Well then, why don’t we begin laying out some of the details of Obamacare’s

Exchange Program and see if we can get a clearer picture of what it’s all about and how it

exactly works.

We know that Obamacare mandated the creation of the Health Exchange Program

and we know that Obamacare is a federal bill. Like many federal mandates, when

Obamacare was drafted, the question of how to implement its reforms effectively and

how to do it in a way that would not overrun state rights was raised. So, to avoid any sort

of federal-state power conflict, Obamacare drafters decided to provide the states the

choice of how they would like to implement and run the Exchange Program in their own

state.

The presented choices were: one, the states could be fully responsible for

implementing and running the Exchange Program in their own state; two, the states could

elect to volley this responsibility back to the federal government, which would mean that

the federal government would be responsible for implementing, running and regulating

the Exchange Program within that state; three, the states could partner with another state


or states to create and administer a joint Exchange Program; or four, the states could elect

a joint federal-state run program.

Presented with these options, the states had until November 16, 2012 to decide

whether they wanted to set up and run their own Exchange Program, partner with another

state or have the federal government do the work for them. Those states that elected to

run their own program had until December 14, 2012 to submit a blueprint design of their

Exchange Program for federal approval.

In the end, the majority of states elected to kick back the responsibility to the

federal government and have a federal-run Health Exchange Program (the precise

breakdown was: 17 states electing a state-run Exchange; 7 choosing a partnership

Exchange; and 27 states defaulting to the federal-run Exchange). To see how the

Exchange Program will be run in your state, check out this map created by the Kaiser

Family Foundation: http://kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/health-insurance-

exchanges/.

Now, one of the main goals in the creation of a national Health Exchange

Program was to hopefully standardize things within the health care world and make

things simpler and more easily understood for the consumer, i.e. the American public.

That means that regardless of whether a state runs its own Exchange or has the federal

government run it for them, at the time of enrollment in October, all Exchanges will look

if not identical, then certainly very similar. All Programs will offer the same types of

plans, which will carry the same names and at least similar features. And, needless to

say, all insurance offered in the Exchanges, regardless of plan type, are to abide by the

Obamacare reforms and are to promise all of Obamacare’s ―essential‖ health care

benefits.

Of course, health care coverage offered under the Exchange will still be insurance

and, unfortunately, premiums for coverage bought under the Exchange will still fluctuate

based on the age of the insured, his or her location and the type of plan that is bought.

That being said, comparing the different Exchange plans and fully understanding

all the plan features should prove much easier for the consumer, compared to wading

through the confusion of what’s normally offered in the individual health care

marketplace.

http://kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/health-insurance-exchanges/

http://kff.org/health-reform/state-indicator/health-insurance-exchanges/


The concept of a nationwide Health Exchange Program is indeed quite new for

this country. And with new ideas come certain misconceptions. When it comes to the

Health Exchange Program, one of the main misconceptions has been that since the

Program will be run by the government – either the state or federal government, doesn’t

matter which – the health coverage offered through these Exchanges will be created and

administered by the government as well, i.e. meaning the health coverage offered will be

public health insurance.

This misconception is fairly logical and, indeed, when Obamacare was first

drafted and the model for a national health program first conceived, the program included

a public health insurance option, i.e. health insurance created by the Federal government

to be presented as an option alongside private health insurance. The argument in

promoting a public health insurance option was that having a public option would create

additional competition within the health care world, which would help the consumer even

more.

Unfortunately, in order to pass Obamacare through Congress in 2010, the public

health insurance option had to be stricken from the bill. Thus, once enrollment begins in

October, all Health Exchanges will be federally created entities and all health insurance

sold on the Exchanges will be products exclusively created and administered by private,

commercial health care providers.

Okay, so the Exchanges won’t provide a public health care option. Despite this

exclusion, it is hoped that when the Exchanges open in October, they will do what they

were intended to do, which is increase the amount of competition within the health care

world, while at the same time offering, as President Obama describes, a ―market where

Americans can one-stop shop for a health care plan, compare benefits and prices, and

choose the plan that's best for them, in the same way that Members of Congress and their

families can‖.

It should also be noted that all insurance offered under the Exchanges is

guaranteed to satisfy each and every one of Obamacare’s health care reforms. That

means that all plans, regardless of tier, will do the following:

- offer all the ―essential benefits‖ listed under Obamacare;

- carry strict regulations regarding an insurer’s ability to rescind coverage;

- eliminate a policy’s annual and lifetime coverage caps;

- satisfy the new Guaranteed Issue regulation: this means that insurers operating

in the Exchanges will no longer be legally allowed to deny coverage or


increase premiums on a policy due to an insured’s pre-existing conditions or

for any other reason;

- be legally unable to charge a different amount for men and women under the

same plan (however, like coverage bought outside the exchange, premiums

will vary based on an insured’s age and location).

And as far as standardization, every Exchange Program in the country, regardless

if it’s state or federally run, will be designed with the same tier and naming structure.

Thus, throughout the country, tiers will share the same names and the same plan features.

However, with that being said, although every insurer offering coverage in the Exchanges

will be required to offer at least one silver and one gold plan, insurers will not have to

offer every single plan tier.xii

So now that you understand a little more about some of the coverage features, we

now provide a brief breakdown of the various tiers of coverage to be offered under the

Exchanges.

As mentioned, all Exchanges will carry the same tiers of coverage, the breakdown

of which is as follows:

Bronze Plan: The Bronze Plan will be the lowest cost plan offered under the

Exchanges. The plan will have the lowest premiums; but, in turn, the tier will have the

lowest actuarial value. The actuarial value of the Bronze Plan will be 60%, meaning that

60% of an insured’s medical costs will be covered by the health care provider or insurer,

leaving 40% of the costs to be paid by the insured.

Silver Plan: The Silver Plan is one tier higher in robustness. At the same time,

premiums in this tier will be higher. The Silver Plan will have an actuarial value of 70%.

This means that 70% of an insured’s medical costs will be paid by the insurer, leaving

30% of the costs to be paid by the insured. The Silver Plan is the reasonable tier for

families of average health and middle class income.

Gold Plan: The Gold Plan will be the second most expensive and second most

robust health care coverage offered in the Exchanges. The plan will have an actuarial

value of 80%, meaning that 80% of a person’s medical costs will be paid by the insurer,

with 20% of the costs being the responsibility of the insured.

Platinum Plan: Finally, the Platinum Plan will be the most robust coverage

available in the Exchanges and the coverage with the highest premiums. The Platinum

Plan will have an actuarial value of 90%. 90% of an insured’s medical costs will be

covered by the insurer, leaving 10% of those costs to be paid by the insured. The


Platinum Plan may be a wise selection for those with high incomes or, alternatively, for

those consumers who expect they will use medical services frequently.

Now, just to re-state, although health care available under the Exchanges will be

divided into tiers of varying robustness, all coverage, regardless of tier, is to meet all of

Obamacare’s health care reforms. Thus, even if an individual or family elects the Bronze

Plan, their coverage will still be guaranteed issue, will still have no annual or lifetime

plan caps, and will still carry the same rescinding restrictions.

As you learn more and more about Obamacare’s Health Benefit Exchange

Program, you may be becoming more interested in enrolling in the Program yourself.

Therefore, you may be wondering who exactly is allowed to enroll and who is not.

Well, the enrollment qualification is pretty simple to explain. The qualification is

as follows: any person who is a legal American citizen may enroll in their state’s

Exchange Program, so long as they do not meet the following criteria:

- qualify for or are currently enrolled in Medicare, CHIP or Medicaid;

- have access to or are currently enrolled in an employer-provided health care

plan;

- or are currently incarcerated.

It’s expected that having employer-provided health coverage will disqualify the

most amount of Americans from purchasing coverage on the Exchanges. However, there

is one exception to this restriction, and it’s important to know – if your employer-

provided coverage costs you more than 9.5% of your income or if, for some reason, your

employer-provided plan does not meet the Essential Benefits as mandated by Obamacare,

then you may opt out of your employer-provided coverage and buy health coverage under

your state’s Exchange Program come enrollment time in October.xiii

A primary goal for the creation of the Health Exchange Program is to encourage

uninsured Americans to buy health insurance coverage. And, indeed, measures like

increasing the standardization of coverage and creating an enrollment process that is

simpler and easier will hopefully go a long way in attracting people to the idea of

purchasing health insurance.


However, there is one measure that will undoubtedly hold the most amount of

appeal to Americans: that is the fact that the government will offer subsidies on health

care purchased on the Exchange Program.

That’s big news and if you’re starting to consider enrolling in the Program, then

you’re undoubtedly wondering if subsidized health care premiums will be available for

you.

Well, whether you qualify for subsidized premiums or not will be based solely on

two criteria: your income and family size. As mentioned in an earlier article, those

individuals who make above 100% and less than 400% of the 2013 Federal Poverty Level

will be in the income bracket to qualify for a federal subsidy on health care purchased

through the Program, regardless of that person’s age, health or location in the country.

More specifically, the amount of assistance that the government will provide will

be based on a sliding scale. Thus, if your income is closer to 400% of the Federal

Poverty Level than 100%, you will qualify for a lesser subsidy. Alternatively, if your

income is closer to the 100% mark, you will qualify for a higher subsidy.

To get a better feel for how much government subsidy you may qualify for, the

Kaiser Family Foundation has provided a handy subsidy calculator, which can be found

here: http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/. Just enter in your family’s income and

your family size and the calculator will provide a good approximate of your expected

subsidy.

So, you’ve plugged your income and family size in the Kaiser subsidy calculator

and it turns out that you qualify for subsidized premiums. You’re probably now

wondering how exactly the subsidies work. Do you get a check in the mail from the

government after enrolling in the Exchange Program? Is the subsidy automatically

applied to the premiums upon enrolling in the Program? Is the subsidy applied as a tax

return?

Well, the government has made the system pretty easy to understand. If you

decide to enroll in the Program in October, you will be prompted to enter in your

expected 2014 income. Assuming that you qualify for federal subsidies, you will then

have the option to either, one, have your subsidy automatically applied to your monthly

health care premiums or, two, claim the subsidy as one large tax break in your 2014

income tax return.

http://kff.org/interactive/subsidy-calculator/


Pretty easy, right? But, now you may be wondering – what happens if, when

enrolling, the figure that I enter as my expected 2014 income turns out to be wrong?

What happens if, say, I get a big promotion in 2014 and my income unexpectedly and

dramatically increases? What happens then to my health care premium subsidies?

Well, in this case, if you elected to apply federal subsidies upfront through

lower monthly premiums, you will be required to pay either the entire subsidy back, or

the difference, at the time of filing your 2014 tax return. Additionally, in this scenario

where an individual’s income unexpectedly increase, it’s been advised that contact should

be made to the state Health Exchange Program. The state Program will then be able to

recalculate the appropriate monthly health care premium, thereby adjusting for the

increase in income.

The answer to this question is yes and no. On the one hand, employment status

has no bearing whatsoever on qualifying for subsidized premiums in the Exchanges. The

only criteria that matters in whether or not an individual qualifies for subsidized

premiums is that person’s or that family’s annual income and family size.

With that being said, unemployment aid is considered income by the government

and, thus, if an applicant expects that his or her unemployment aid will continue in 2014,

he or she must include it in his or her expected 2014 annual income when enrolling in the

Exchange Program. Thus, depending on how much unemployment that person receives,

it may preclude him or her from falling within the 100% to 400% income bracket, which

in turn, may preclude that person from receiving assistance on premium costs.

By the same token, any person who is unemployed and does not receive

unemployment aid, may not only qualify for subsidized premiums under the Exchange

Program, but may qualify for Medicaid, which would provide that person with health

care for little or no cost.

If you left your job and elected to continue your job-based health care through a

COBRA plan, you may be wondering whether or not you’ll still be able to obtain health

care through your state’s Exchange Program. It’s a good question, one with a fortunately

clear and simple answer.


The answer is that any person who is on a COBRA plan may indeed change from

that COBRA plan to coverage offered in the Exchange Program. Furthermore, this

change may be done at any time in the year, and not solely within the Program’s October

enrollment period. This is a rule that holds true whether the individual’s COBRA plan

happens to end on its own or whether the individual elected to terminate the COBRA

coverage early.

Indeed, there is only one requirement for those with COBRA coverage who

would like to enroll in the Health Exchange Program – namely, their COBRA coverage

must be completely terminated prior to enrolling in any health insurance offered through

the Exchange Program.xiv

The national Health Exchange Program is an online program, and individuals who

are interested in enrolling in the Program in October will be able to do so online. All

steps of enrollment, from selecting a plan tier to filling out an enrollment application to

paying for monthly premiums, will be able to be done online.

More specifically, each state that elected to implement and administer their own

Health Exchange Program will have their own Exchange website where citizens of state

can go to explore and/ or enroll in the Program.

Alternatively, for those states that chose to have a federally-run Exchange

Program, citizens of those states will go to an Exchange website run by the Federal

government. The website is Healthcare.gov and the site address is, naturally enough:

www.healthcare.gov.

Hopefully, this article provided additional specifics as to what the national Health

Exchange Program does, what kind of health coverage it offers and for whom the

Program is intended. But, with the introduction of a Program so large and widespread

comes many more questions – the sheer number of which is out of this article’s scope.

However, there are resources aplenty for learning more about Obamacare’s

Exchange Program and your state’s involvement in it. And the first resource that people

should turn to is the previously mentioned Healthcare.gov website at

www.healthcare.gov. Created directly by the Federal government, this website is the

http://www.healthcare.gov/



definitive source for learning all the facts about the Exchange Program and is the source

that will answer a host of questions and topics that were left unaddressed by this article.

Additionally, for states that elected to operate their own Exchange Programs, the

www.healthcare.gov website provides links to the Program websites for these states.

Finally, as mentioned previously, for those states that elected to have a federal-run

Program, the www.healthcare.gov site will be where citizens of those states go to

purchase health insurance through the Exchange.

Explore the website and if your questions are still not answered, the government

has set up a hotline number at 1-800-318-2596, which you can call to get additional

information and assistance.

Hopefully through this article series, you now have a better understanding of just

how impactful and wide-reaching Obamacare is, and hopefully you also understand that

with Obamacare’s two major reforms having yet to be initiated – namely, its Individual

Mandate and its Employer Responsibility Mandate – in some sense, the show has just

begun. It’s exciting times for American health care, and for America in general, and it’s

also a time of a great deal of trepidation.

The Individual and Employer Responsibility Mandates have already inspired a

whole host of questions. How will Americans react in 2014 to being forced to buy health

care if they don’t already have coverage? Will Americans consider the premiums offered

on the Exchanges to be out of their budget? Will they elect to pay the federal penalty

rather than opt in to buy health care on the Exchanges?

These are only some of the many questions that have been thrown about in the

media, among other circles; all questions which are impossible to answer because, simply

put, the mandates haven’t been introduced yet and because, more notably, the concept of

having a standardized, public marketplace and the idea of financially penalizing

Americans for not having health coverage are very uncharted waters for this country.

But, the debate and queries don’t end there. When Obamacare’s Employer

Responsibility Mandate takes effect in 2015, it will introduce a whole new set of

questions, answers for which members of the business community have already begun

debating. How will the hiring rate be affected when Obamacare begins penalizing

businesses with more than 50 full-time employees for not providing health care to their

employees? Will the new practice of penalizing companies buck the country’s recent

trend of an increasingly encouraging hiring rate? Will small businesses choose to pay the




penalty rather than buy their employees health insurance? Or worse, will small

businesses choose to demote some of their full-time employees to part-timers so as to fall

below the 50 full-time employee demarcation line?

There are plenty of unanswered Obamacare questions to go around, and there are

probably just as many predictions of what will happen when Obamacare’s major reforms

take affect. On the one hand, Obamacare’s critics predict a slowdown in the national

hiring rate, a continuing, if not accelerated, rise in health care cost, and, in a worst case

scenario, a leveling-off of the nation’s economic recovery; this, all a clear and direct

result of Obamacare. Obamacare supporters meanwhile claim that because Obamacare

will increase the amount of Americans with health insurance, in the long-run health care

costs will decrease; they also claim that small businesses will see their bottom line

improved by the bill; and that, most importantly, with every American’s medical and

health expenses insured, the country as a whole will be a much more healthy place to

live.

Obamacare supporters may have a steeper hill to climb in defending and

providing arguments for why Obamacare will improve the country rather than weaken it,

in part, because, as mentioned a moment ago, there are no hard facts to claim that

Obamacare won’t disrupt the nation’s strengthening hiring rate, or that it won’t inspire

employers to limit or reduce their amount of full-time employees.

For their part, Obamacare supporters argue that, although Obamacare may seem

expensive at first (after all, it requires all non-insured individuals to purchase health care

and requires all businesses of a certain size to provide health care for their employees) in

the long-term, Obamacare will save businesses money, will improve people’s health and

will actually and finally succeed in driving down the ridiculous cost of health care in this

country.

In forecasting the effect of Obamacare on businesses after the introduction of the

Employer Responsibility Mandate, supporters have also recently looked to statistics to

give their side a helping hand. The Employer Mandate states that businesses with 50 or

more full-time employees must provide health care to their workers or else face a federal

imposed penalty. However, small business advocates and Obamacare supporters argue

that more than 9 out of 10 businesses subject to the mandate already provide health care

to their workers. Of the 28 million small businesses in America, 96% of those won’t be

subject to the Obamacare mandate. This is according to the U.S. Small Business

Administration. Furthermore, only about 1% of national job growth in the current year is

due to the hiring pattern in businesses at the 50 full-time employee mark. xv


Obamacare supporters argue that the idea of Obamacare dampening the nation’s

hiring rate, rather than being an accurate forecast, is instead simply a talking point for the

bill’s noisy row of critics.

But, Obamacare supporters may be a bit disheartened to learn the results of

several recent surveys measuring the attitude of small businesses toward Obamacare and

the feeling of these businesses of whether the bill will affect their hiring and business

practices. These recent surveys have indeed been mixed.

On the one hand, some surveys have shown that the hiring rate of small

businesses has in fact increased in 2013, with employers of fewer than 50 employees

adding approximately 84,000 jobs in June of 2013.

On the other hand, a survey called the Littler Mendelson Gallup Poll, conducted

this year, gained a particularly large amount of press when it demonstrated not only the

deep apprehension of small businesses toward Obamacare, but, more importantly,

showed that small businesses are actually beginning to change their hiring practices in

anticipation of the Employer Responsibility Mandate and its feared negative affects.

Out of the 603 small business owners surveyed in the Littler Mendelson Gallup

Poll, 41% of the owners claimed to have frozen their hiring in direct anticipation of the

introduction of Obamacare’s Employer Responsibility Mandate in 2015. 38% of

surveyed businesses, meanwhile, stated that they had already begun to scale back their

plans of growing their business because of Obamacare. Finally, 48% of the businesses

believed that Obamacare would be bad for their bottom line.xvi

Not good news for Obamacare supporters. Unfortunately, the negative news has

not ended there. Several recent news stories have added fuel to the recent critical fire

surrounding Obamacare and it’s possible negative affect on business and the economy.

Earlier this month, the teen retailer, Forever 21, announced that it would reduce

the hours of 196 of its employees to 29.5 hours per week, thus effectively making them

considered part-time employees under Obamacare. It must be mentioned, in announcing

this realignment, Forever 21 denied the notion that the realignment had anything to do

with Obamacare; but, analysts and critics of Forever 21’s business move have their

doubts.xvii

At around the same time, UPS made their own announcement. In mid-August,

UPS announced that it would end paying for the spousal health coverage of 15,000 of its

employees. Unlike Forever 21, UPS announced that this decision was a way ―to offset

cost increases due to the [Obamacare]‖. xviii

As UPS explained, spouses who work should


be covered by their own employer, and not by UPS. Thus, in this decision, all working

spouses are to be removed from the UPS health care plan. However, non-working

spouses, who are not on any employer-provided health plan, will remain on the UPS plan.

The removal of working spouses from company health plans has been a growing

trend and many experts agree that it’s a trend that will only increase in the near future.

However, the fact that UPS specifically targeted Obamacare as a reason for their decision

– that’s fairly new. UPS expects that Obamacare will cause their health care costs to

increase by 11.25% in 2014 (compared to the average yearly rise of 7%); and thus,

removing working spouses from their health care plan is a way to cut costs.

Unfortunately, UPS is not alone in taking steps to mitigate the rise in health care

costs that some expect will come from Obamacare. Most recently, the drumbeat of doubt

and worry has been struck by the likes of Delta Air Lines and the University of Virginia.

UVA claims that it will pay more than $7 million in fees and taxes in 2014 as a result of

Obamacare, which would result in a "double digit premium increase" if it didn't

implement savings measures.xix

So, in hearing that a growing number of corporations are beginning to take

measures to mitigate an expected increase in their health care costs as a result of

Obamacare, many people are wondering what these early measures mean. Do these

measures, which have been taken on the part of a few companies, signal the beginning of

a widespread trend in the world of employers? Does it mean, more significantly, that

Obamacare will be a failed piece of legislation, a good-intentioned bill that unfortunately

will prove to turn a terrible scenario into a much more worse scenario, for businesses or

individuals alike? Or is Obamacare being cast as a scapegoat in the stage of commerce, a

convenient way for employers to enact and explain away cost-cutting measures that

they’ve been meaning to do for years?

Well, now’s the time for the big letdown, for the truth of the matter is that it’s far

too early to have answers to any of these questions – or at least answers that are factually-

based and not based on pure conjecture. Companies have full discretion to predict

whether or not their health care costs will increase due to the Obamacare mandates and to

take measures to reduce these predicted increases. But, whether these forecasted health

care increases actually prove accurate is an entirely different story. In the short term, say

three or fours years after the introduction of Obamacare’s Employer Mandate, health care

costs for businesses may be abnormally high. However, who knows – perhaps five or

seven years down the road, Obamacare will have begun to succeed in its goal of slowly

reducing the exorbitant price of health coverage in this country. A change that would

have a very positive ripple affect in the business world.


In the end, because Obamacare brings so much widespread and unprecedented

change to the health care marketplace, it’s long term affect in the business world, and it’s

affect on national employment, and it’s affect on the well-being, financial and otherwise,

of the American people is far to difficult to predict accurately at this time.

It’s unfortunate that this article couldn’t be more reassuring and positive as far as

whether Obamacare will be good for this country. Our country’s jobseekers are

particularly sensitive to any sweeping, national policy changes, such as those health care

reforms authored in by Obamacare, and it would be great to reassure this group that

everything will be all right – that Obamacare will further strengthen the national hiring

rate and the nation’s economic recovery; that present worries of small business owners

will prove unfounded; that businesses will find their health care costs reduced and not

increased. But, the truth of the matter is that reassurance like that would be nothing but

misleading at this time.

Yes, there is a chance that Obamacare may stunt the nation’s recovery and its

hiring rate, and jobseekers must keep this in mind. But, although Obamacare brings risk,

it also brings added support. Now, through Obamacare’s Health Exchange Program,

some of the country’s most vulnerable people – like members of its unemployed or its

partially employed – will have an easier and more reliable way to gain health care.

Furthermore, now members of the lower and lower-middle class – and not just those in

poverty – will be able to get the assistance from the government to pay for their health

care.

The safety net for a whole cross-section of people – from the country’s jobseekers

to its self-employed workers to its retirees – has widened through Obamacare, and in this

time of economic recovery, and, above all, in this age of increasing disparity between the

have’s and have not’s, a widening social safety net is a needed and very reassuring thing

indeed.


Get your free copy of “Get Job Leads Fast Using

Twitter.”

Visit http://www.resumetoreferral.com/blog/get-job-

leads-fast-using-twitter/ to find out how to obtain your

copy.

The following is an excerpt from the book, Get Job

Leads Fast Using Twitter:

5 Reasons Jobseekers Should Use Twitter

Think Twitter is a joke? Some say yes. There are great

reasons for taking Twitter seriously, however, especially when one considers it a new

job-search tool that hasn’t been fully tapped. Currently other job-search methods [posting

your resume with job boards and emailing your resume to recruiters], what we might call

traditional job-search techniques, are continuously eroding in effectiveness.

In order to fully understand why Twitter has become a front-running tool, jobseekers

need only recognize several core changes that have occurred across the hiring landscape:

First, recruitment firms were struggling even before the recession hit — especially

those less established. Employers are always looking for ways to cut costs, regardless of

what the market is doing — and recruiters seem to be experiencing the brunt of it.

Some might say employers’ new vision isn’t unfounded. When you factor recruitment

firms charge fees between 3% and 15%, hiring costs can get out of hand even for the

most financially stable employers. The cost of hiring an executive with a $100,000 salary

for example costs the hiring company upwards of $15,000.

Recruiters do provide a very valuable service, such as resume sourcing and prescreening

of candidates, but hiring companies seem increasingly fixated on the costs of doing

business, and how to go about reducing it.

What’s the lesson here? Recruitment firms can be a great resource, but don’t overlook

the importance of contacting employers directly, using services such as Twitter to make it

happen.

Second, an estimated 15 million people are unemployed. Fifteen million is a

conservative number when you consider there are millions more out of work, no longer

drawing unemployment benefits nor looking for employment. At one time, we were

http://www.resumetoreferral.com/blog/get-job-leads-fast-using-twitter/



experiencing the longest recession in history since the 1940s,1 and some experts speculate

it will take several years (possibly into 2018 or longer) to regain those jobs lost and

before unemployment numbers get back to acceptable levels.

When factoring all the doom and gloom, jobseekers need great new ways to build

relationships and uncover job leads … beyond just those status quo.

What’s the lesson here? Twitter isn’t saturated with jobseekers just yet, and if utilized

correctly, it can serve as another resource to generate a nice return for you.

Third, few other tools like Twitter give you near direct access to hiring agents.

Ideally, two-way tweeting does require approval from both parties though. You follow

HiringJim, HiringJim follows you back. Should HiringJim opt not to follow you,

however, communication between the two of you becomes more difficult as Direct

Messaging (DM) from you to him is impossible.

Note: You can submit an open message but the chance of HiringJim receiving it isn’t a

sure thing — it’s worth a shot though, and may get you on his radar.

What’s the lesson here? Twitter is another channel for getting in touch with the right

people, at the right time.

Fourth, Twitter creates a network like no other. You’d be hard pressed to go

anywhere online and not learn networking is still the number one way of locating jobs.

Proof of this is represented by hiring companies increasing their use of employee referral

programs, meaning they are encouraging employees to refer friends, family, and

colleagues for open positions.

Can you blame them? The price is right.

What’s the lesson here? If you’ve been ignoring your network, you can no longer afford

to do so.

Networking is the pivotal focus of

Internet 2.0, and hiring companies are

recognizing this as well. Twitter is part

of Internet 2.0, and frankly one of the

easiest ways to keep continued, day-to-

day contact with your network.

1 http://jobbait.com/a/recession.htm

http://jobbait.com/a/recession.htm


Lastly, we go with what works … and Twitter is giving us results! Business

professionals tend to stick with what works, right? A recent CNNMoney.com article

entitled, HR by Twitter2, highlights the success of Breaking Point Systems (BPS) with

hiring a new Marketing Director.

The VP of Marketing, Pam O’Neal, stated the company opted to use Twitter to attract a

marketing professional with social media expertise.

Does Twitter sound like something of interest to you? Click here to get your book copy

via download:

Visit http://www.resumetoreferral.com/blog/get-job-leads-fast-using-twitter/ to find out

how to obtain your copy.



i Jeffrey Young, “Uninsured Americans 2012: More Than 45 Million Lacked Health Insurance Last Year, CDC Reports,” The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/uninsured-americans-2012_n_2918705.html. ii Elisabeth Rosenthal, “American Way of Birth, Costliest in the World,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/health/american-way-of-birth-costliest-in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all. iii Sarah Parnass, “’Obamacare’ Poll Finds 42% of Americans Unaware It’s a Law,” ABC News, http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/obamacare-poll-finds-42-of-americans-unaware-its-law/. iv Obamacare Facts. Dispelling the Myths, “ObamaCare Bill: Obama Health Care Bill”. http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacarebill.php. v Obamacare Facts. “ObamaCare Facts: Obama's Health Care Reform,” http://obamacarefacts.com. vi http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patient_Protection_and_Affordable_Care_Act vii Robert Pear, “Rules Let Youths Stay on Parents’ Insurance,” The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/health/policy/11health.html?_r=0. viii The White House 2010. Young Adults and the Affordable Care Act: Protecting Young Adults and Eliminating Burdens on Families and Businesses, http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/fact_sheet_young_adults_may10.pdf [press release]. ix FamiliesUSA. “2013 Federal Poverty Guidelines”. http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html. x Jeffrey Young, “Obamacare Employer Mandate Delayed for One Year,” The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/obamacare-employer-mandate_n_3536695.html. xi Obamacare Facts. Dispelling the Myths, “Benefits Of ObamaCare: Advantage of ObamaCare”. http://obamacarefacts.com/benefitsofobamacare.php. xii Obamacare Facts http://obamacarefacts.com/insurance-exchange/health-insurance-exchange-guide.php xiii Obamacare Facts. Obamacare: Health Insurance Exchange, “Who Can't Participate in the HIX Health Insurance Exchange?” http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-health-insurance-exchange.php. xiv Healthcare.gov, https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-i-currently-have-cobra-coverage/ xv Alain Sherter, “Is Obamacare a Job-Killer?,” CBS Moneywatch, http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57595475/is-obamacare-a-job-killer/. xvi Dan Mangan, “Obamacare Causing Nearly Half of Small Businesses to Freeze Hiring: Poll,” The Huffington Post, http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/obamacare-small-business-hiring_n_3468498.html. xvii “Forever 21 Denies Cutting Employees’ Hours Due To Obamacare,” CBS Local Media, http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/forever-21-denies-cutting-employees-hours-due-to-obamacare/. xviii Jose Pagliery, “UPS Cuts Insurance to 15,000 Spouses, Blames Obamacare,” Cable News Network, http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/21/news/companies/ups-obamacare/. xix Tami Luhby, “Employers Play Obamacare Blame Game,” Cable News Network, http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/29/news/economy/employers-obamacare-benefits/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/uninsured-americans-2012_n_2918705.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/03/21/uninsured-americans-2012_n_2918705.html

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/health/american-way-of-birth-costliest-in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all

http://www.nytimes.com/2013/07/01/health/american-way-of-birth-costliest-in-the-world.html?pagewanted=all

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/obamacare-poll-finds-42-of-americans-unaware-its-law/

http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2013/04/obamacare-poll-finds-42-of-americans-unaware-its-law/

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacarebill.php

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/11/health/policy/11health.html?_r=0

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/fact_sheet_young_adults_may10.pdf

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/rss_viewer/fact_sheet_young_adults_may10.pdf

http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html

http://www.familiesusa.org/resources/tools-for-advocates/guides/federal-poverty-guidelines.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/obamacare-employer-mandate_n_3536695.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/07/02/obamacare-employer-mandate_n_3536695.html

http://obamacarefacts.com/benefitsofobamacare.php

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-health-insurance-exchange.php

http://obamacarefacts.com/obamacare-health-insurance-exchange.php

https://www.healthcare.gov/what-if-i-currently-have-cobra-coverage/

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-505143_162-57595475/is-obamacare-a-job-killer/

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/obamacare-small-business-hiring_n_3468498.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/19/obamacare-small-business-hiring_n_3468498.html

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/forever-21-denies-cutting-employees-hours-due-to-obamacare/

http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2013/08/19/forever-21-denies-cutting-employees-hours-due-to-obamacare/

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/21/news/companies/ups-obamacare/

http://money.cnn.com/2013/08/29/news/economy/employers-obamacare-benefits/

A Guide to Obama-Care

Healthcare

Transcript of A Guide to Obama-Care