The Affordable Care Act or ObamaCare was passed almost three years ago with the goal of extending quality health insurance coverage to more Americans and it becomes fully effective January 1st 2014. To encourage compliance, the Act for all intents and purposes takes a carrot-and-stick approach as credits are offered for those who need financial help with buying insurance, and penalties are defined for those who do not get insurance. The Act’s core requirements are most Americans must have health insurance and that all but small employers must offer insurance to full-time employees.

In other words if you are a United States citizen or legal resident you must have “minimum essential” health insurance coverage and your dependents must also be covered or risk being essentially penalized. Exemptions will be allowed for:

•  Financial hardship (standards will be defined by the Secretary of Health and Human Services)

•  Religious objections (applies only to certain faiths)

•  Members of American Indian tribes

•  Those uninsured for less than three months

•  Undocumented immigrants

•  Incarcerated individuals

•  Those for whom the lowest cost plan option exceeds 8% of income

•  Those with incomes below the tax filing threshold

I will be posting A LOT on this topic as it gets rolled out. Today’s post is merely an introduction and to inform you that the United States Department of the Treasury just recently issued proposed regulations relating to the health insurance premium tax credit enacted by the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act and the Health Care and Education Reconciliation Act of 2010 as amended by the Medicare and Medicaid Extenders Act of 2010, the Comprehensive 1099 Taxpayer Protection and Repayment of Exchange Subsidy Over-payments Act of 2011, and the Department of Defense and Full-Year Continuing Appropriations Act of 2011.

A full set of posts will be dedicated to these proposed regulations as I decipher them and struggle to understand their ramifications.