With the March 31st deadline looming and friends urging me to sign up, tonight I took a look at my healthcare options on the exchange.
Nothing is, alas, remotely affordable for me.
With an annual income of $15,000 in a good year, at age 60 and living in North Carolina, I qualify for a $595/mo "tax credit". The cheapest plan available to me is $524/mo and the cheapest decent one is at about $600/mo. Technically, that's $5 a month, hell of deal deal it would appear.
Maybe I'm wrong, but a tax credit is something that you can deduct from your federal income tax bill at the end of the year, right? So I could take $7,140 off the $7,200 I paid during the year for health insurance?
Except I won't owe anywhere near $7,140 in federal income taxes, and there's no way on this green earth I can afford to pay $7,200 out of an income of $15,000 (if I'm lucky, it could be lower) during the year and still eat and have a roof over my head even if I could get it all back in tax savings.
So, I guess I have to hope my health holds out until 65; or, maybe the NC legislature will change hands sometime soon (I doubt this) and we'll opt for the federal medicare expansion here.
Thanks, Republicans. You just might kill me after all.
* Updated *
thanks to the generous and knowledgeable Kossacks who've commented below, the situation is considerably more hopeful that I originally thought. Thanks, all! :)