is that a fair assessment, sarah varney? guest: certainly. the primary goal of the affordable care act is to ensure millions of people in the united states, and there is a whole bunch of other things the affordable care act does. medicare, trying to reduce inspections, the list goes on and on. primarily at its core, absolutely, we have 50 million uninsured people and how do we get them insurance? guest: we are talking about financial security and peace of mind. by far the largest cause of bankruptcies in recent years, recent decades, it's been health-care costs. one of the reasons behind the aca was that nobody should have to go bankrupt because they get sick. host: you do objective reporting. is the goal to market health- care law or to educate and learn about it? guest: no, the goal is to explain health-care policy and politics. we cover things other than the aca as well. we write about hospitals, the insurance industry, providers, every nook and cranny of the health care system we have folks dedicated to that. no doubt the implementation o

sarah varney? guest: i don't know the answer to that.there were supposed to be two -- guest: the idea is that each state is supposed to have one. it is problematic in some seo --mississippi, in some oun -- some states and counties, there may only be one. there are multistate plans, which we haven't mentioned before. the people who designed the law and who wrote it foresaw the chance that in some parts of the country there might not be sufficient competition. there are provisions to have at least one nonprofit of the state plan and one for-profit of the state plan. they are still being implemented now. they are not likely to be rolled out on a national basis, as was the original intention. --t there are other backstops they are another backstop intended to bring in more competition into states that may be lacking them. another is the co-ops. the federal government, the law provided large subsidies to set up brand-new insurance companies in some states. typically these are blue states like maryland,

. >> let's get one more call for sarah varney. this time from pennsylvania.bill is on our republican line. you are on the air. go ahead. >> i am almost 76ers old, and i -- that's not what i'm really calling about. tie inson with the help the irs with obamacare is the the fifthn who took amendment when she talked about targeting opponents of the obama administration. how do we know she will fairly handle this job? are talking about lois lerner, the irs official? >> party scandal. >> bill, thanks for your call. let's end on that in terms of the tax implications for obamacare, for the healthcare law. what will people notice most once the law is fully implemented? where is it likely to help or hurt people most? >> he is absolutely right that the irs has been the linchpin in all of this in trying to figure out if you qualify for subsidies. you go onto the exchange and put in your estimated income for the coming year. those are based on your estimates. money, the more subsidy goes down proportionately. if you earn less money, the subsidy goes up proportionately. it

. >> let's get one more call for sarah varney. this time from pennsylvania. bill is on our republican line. you are on the air. go ahead. >> i am almost 76 years old, and i have lost -- that's not what i'm really calling about. the person with the help tie in the irs with obamacare is the same person who took the fifth amendment when she talked about targeting opponents of the obama administration. how do we know she will fairly handle this job? >> you are talking about lois lerner, the irs official? >> party scandal. >> bill, thanks for your call. let's end on that in terms of the tax implications for obamacare, for the healthcare law. what will people notice most once the law is fully implemented? where is it likely to help or hurt people most? >> he is absolutely right that the irs has been the linchpin in all of this in trying to figure out if you qualify for subsidies. you go onto the exchange and put in your estimated income for the coming year. those are based on your estimates. if you earn more money, the subsidy goes down proportionately. if you earn