 [ Symptoms ] i am low income do i get penalized because i do not qualify for medicaid and cannot afford to buy insurance i need it [ Disease ] for starters under the new health reform law people with low incomes who have not qualified for medicaid in the past may now qualify a little more than half of states will be expanding their medicaid programs to include individuals with incomes up to roughly 16 000 per year if your state does not expand its medicaid program you will likely be eligible for significant financial help to pay for a health plan people making as much as 46 000 per year are eligible for tax credits that will lower the cost of insurance and if you make less than about 28 000 per year you will also pay less each time you go for medical care if with all this the lowest priced health plan available to you costs more than 8 of your income or you do not make enough money to file income taxes you will not be penalized with a tax penalty for not having health insurance you will have the chance starting october 1st    just 5 days from now    to log onto your state is health insurance marketplace to begin searching for your options i urge you to do so you may be quite pleasantly surprised by the new options available to people with limited incomes good luck