The federal health law's individual marketplaces have started. In New York nearly all Americans will be required to have health insurance starting January 1, 2014, or else they will be liable for a tax penalty. There is considerable confusion about the law. Some people aren't sure if they qualify and they have no clear idea of how much insurance might cost.
To help determine how the Affordable Care Act might affect you and your own insurance costs, NPR and the Kaiser Family Foundation have developed a "subsidy calculator" to illustrate health insurance on premiums and subsidies for people purchasing insurance on their own in new health insurance exchanges created by the Affordable Care Act.
Simply plug in where you live, your age, annual income, whether you use tobacco, and how many people live in your home to find out if you qualify and what your monthly costs may be. The calculator will be updated as the marketplaces go live.
