Now that the US Supreme Court has ruled that Obamacare is legal, what will be the effect on US expats?

Will US citizens living outside the US be exempt? Will it be much like Medicare or VA care, which is only offered within the US so that anyone outside the US would need to travel for care? Will expats be forced to pay for a plan in the US, even if care under the plan is unavailable outside the US, or else pay a fine for not enrolling in a US health plan?

Under this law, these are the penalties involved for not enrolling in a plan:
2014: Families––$285 or 1 percent of total household income, whichever is greater. Individual adults––$95.
2015: Families––$975 or 2 percent of income, whichever is greater. Individual adults––$325.
2016: Families––$2,085 or 2.5 percent of income, whichever is greater. Individual adults––$695.

There are somewhere between 5 and 10 million US citizens living outside of the US. We tend to be forgotten (or worse) when government is making policies.

Can someone more knowledgeable shed some light on this for me?

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Obama Care and Expats with link to full text below. What it doesn't say is how you prove to the IRS that you live outside the US. All I can think of for proof is you need to use you Mexican address on your 1040 instead of some US address.

CHAPTER 48—MAINTENANCE OF MINIMUM ESSENTIAL COVERAGE

(a) Requirement to maintain minimum essential coverage
An applicable individual shall for each month beginning after 2013 ensure that the individual, and any dependent of the individual who is an applicable individual, is covered under minimum essential coverage for such month.

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(f) Minimum essential coverage
For purposes of this section—

(1) In general
The term “minimum essential coverage” means any of the following:

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(4) Individuals residing outside United States or residents of territories
Any applicable individual shall be treated as having minimum essential coverage for any month—

(A) if such month occurs during any period described in subparagraph (A) or (B) of section 911(d)(1) which is applicable to the individual, or

(B) if such individual is a bona fide resident of any possession of the United States (as determined under section 937(a)) for such month

U.S.C. Title 26 - INTERNAL REVENUE CODE

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Sparks Mexico Web

I, too, am wondering about the Affordable Care Act. I suppose we will need to wait for the dust to settle. With all the bureaus and such, which agency should have the answer? Somehow the citation from the IRS doesn't seem to cover the new ACA. Again, we'll need to wait and see.

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“He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded.. - Henry IV, Act 3 - Wm. Shakespeare

I just hope that reference to "MONTH" does not require monthly proof. You either live outside the US or you are visiting/traveling

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Sparks Mexico Web

I live in Taiwan which has National Health Insurance which I am enrolled in. We are issued a health insurance card and I have a residents visa. I also maintain a mailing address in the USA basically for IRS and banking.

The question I see will be if the IRS will accept documents from a country the USA does not even recognize?

If I visit the USA will I have to provide proof of insurance if I stay more than one month?

Are they going to cross check that against my passport entry/exit?

How can the Feds force you to buy insurance ? What they should of done is issue more tax credits for people who buy insurance and people who don't buy lose the credits .

For example , I bought an electric car this month and received a $7500 credit . However , no one is penalized for not buying an electric car .

That portion of Section 911 of the tax code is copy/pasted below. It looks like they'll be using the standard IRS definitions for "tax home" and "bona fide residence" or "physical presence", which are already used to determine if a taxpayer qualifies for the foreign income exclusion. I've lived abroad for 30+ years and sometimes used a US mailing address with the IRS, but it was easy to prove I was a "bona fide resident" with a "tax home" abroad when I was working. As a retiree, I use my Mexican address for all IRS (and Social Security) correspondence.

"Tax home" and "Physical presence" are more complicated. See
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion - Bona Fide Residence Test
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion - Tax Home in Foreign Country
Foreign Earned Income Exclusion - Physical Presence Test


--------QUOTE from Section 911--------
(d) Definitions and special rules
For purposes of this section—
(1) Qualified individual
The term “qualified individual” means an individual whose tax home is in a foreign country and who is—
(A) a citizen of the United States and establishes to the satisfaction of the Secretary that he has been a bona fide resident of a foreign country or countries for an uninterrupted period which includes an entire taxable year, or
(B) a citizen or resident of the United States and who, during any period of 12 consecutive months, is present in a foreign country or countries during at least 330 full days in such period.
--------END QUOTE--------

Source: 26 USC § 911 - Citizens or residents of the United States living abroad | LII / Legal Information Institute

Respectfully Jas, I do not feel that this is the place to debate the policies of the USA except as to how they will affect expats living in Mexico. I am sure there are better places to continue the ACA debate that we can all locate if we wish, but the fact is we here need to deal with the things that exist and how they affect us, and right now the ACA is one of those things...we need to wait and see how it does affect us, not debate whether it should have been passed muster. I apologize in advance for taking a stance on your post.

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“He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded.. - Henry IV, Act 3 - Wm. Shakespeare

If this is correct and I do use Mexico as my "tax home", then will I still be responsible for obtaining US health insurance or paying the "tax" not to have it?

OFF TOPIC BUT...
As an adjunct question, if one maintains a bank account in a US bank, in anyone's opinion does that preclude using Mexico as a "tax home" and exempt monies in a US bank from US tax laws.

[Mod: if there is a better place for the last part of this comment, please feel free to move it - FHBOY]

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“He was but as the cuckoo is in June, Heard, not regarded.. - Henry IV, Act 3 - Wm. Shakespeare

According to someone on another forum .... if you are receiving Social Security you have health care (medicare). I somehow think it won't be that simple

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Sparks Mexico Web