Health law bumps in the road: Subsidy eligibility questions, Medi-Cal asset seizure, health literacy

Obamacare programs designed to help people are running into problems concerning how much money people have when they get covered. 

The New York Times: Thousands To Be Questioned On Eligibility For Health Insurance Subsidies 
Of the eight million people who signed up for private health plans through insurance exchanges under the new health care law, two million reported personal information that differed from data in government records, according to federal officials and Serco, the company hired to resolve such inconsistencies. The government is asking consumers for additional documents ... People who do not provide the information risk losing their subsidized coverage and may have to repay subsidies next April (Pear, 6/15).

San Jose Mercury News: Obamacare Wrinkle: California Bill Seeks To Reduce State's Seizure of Medi-Cal Recipients' Assets
California politicians and federal bureaucrats are scrambling to iron out an unexpected wrinkle in the nation's health care law that is forcing many Americans to choose between health coverage and depriving heirs of much of their inheritance. California is one of 10 states that recover a broad array of costs from recipients of Medicaid, ... The policy applies to recipients 55 and older -; and only after they die. The seizure of assets has been going on for years but has suddenly become a heated issue since millions of low-income American adults began enrolling in the expanded Medicaid program created by the Affordable Care Act (Seipel, 6/13).

Kaiser Health News: Say What? Many Patients Struggling To Learn The Foreign Language Of Health Insurance
Health officials have spent much of the past year promoting the Affordable Care Act and enrolling people in coverage. Now they need to help consumers understand the basics of health insurance and how to use their policies, health care providers and researchers say (Gorman, 6/16).