Under ACA, consumers whose annual income is less than 133% of the federal poverty level would be absorbed into Medicaid, and other low (and some middle) income people would get subsidies to get health insurance on the federal or state-based Marketplace exchanges. But states offer another option, called the Basic Health Plan, to cover people with incomes between 133% and 200% percent of the federal poverty level. These consumers would have income above the Medicaid limits but still quite low. The basic plan would be offered outside of the state insurance exchange and it would include the ACA’s essential benefits, and premiums would be subsidized. The federal government pays the states 95% of what it would have paid had those consumers received subsidized insurance through the Marketplace exchanges.
