The new health care law is known as the Affordable Care Act.
But Democrats in Congress and advocates for low-income people say
coverage may be unaffordable for millions of Americans because of a
cramped reading of the law by the administration and by the Internal Revenue Service in particular.
Under rules proposed by the service, some working-class families would
be unable to afford family coverage offered by their employers, and yet
they would not qualify for subsidies provided by the law.
The fight revolves around how to define “affordable” under provisions of
the law that are ambiguous. The definition could have huge practical
consequences, affecting who gets help from the government in buying health insurance.
Under the law, most Americans will be required to have health insurance
starting in 2014. Low- and middle-income people can get tax credits and
other subsidies to help pay their premiums, unless they have access to
affordable coverage from an employer.
The law specifies that employer-sponsored insurance
is not affordable if a worker’s share of the premium is more than 9.5
percent of the worker’s household income. The I.R.S. says this
calculation should be based solely on the cost of individual coverage
for the employee, what the worker would pay for “self-only coverage.”
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