In my state -- not sure about other states -- insurance will take effect on the first of the next month or, if you apply after the 23rd of the month, coverage will commence on the 1st of the second month following. Much the same as commercial policies currently.
Okay, so how about a new product, Catastrophic care coverage that doesn’t qualify as an Obama approved policy, and only covers you for two months of medical bills? (Sort of a glorified version of those Cancer Only mailorder policies) If it has the same coverage delay as the OCare policies it’ll be necessary to carry it ahead of time, but it should still be cheaper than the deductables on Ocare. And the combination of the cost of the coverage, pay per use primary care, and the fine will still be cheaper than an Ocare policy.
This is one of several dozen workarounds (bankruptcy’s another), and I suspect they haven’t covered them all.
For a kid who has no insurance coverage now, carrying the risk of having to cover a month of costs while he waits out the OCare effectiveness delay is still going to be preferable to his current situation, and there’ll be a strong incentive to just take that risk. Males under 35 tend to think they’re invulnerable anyway.