It's the new Federal Govt. subsidy that helps low and middle-income people with premiums as part of the ACA. It would, if she were eligible, be $512.00 a month.

Does she own property or other assets in the UK that would be sold to fund her care while in the USA?

Is it still the case in the UK that when you need to move in to a retirement home the government takes your house if you own one?

Do PRs become eligible after several years of being a PR?

Yes, after 5 years.

LPR's are immediately eligible for the ACA subsidy but are not eligible for the free Medicaid provision of ACA. It is tricky since if the LPR's income is below 133% of the poverty level, the LPR can't use ACA. But if the LPR's income is between 133%-400% of the poverty level, then subsidies are available with the greatest subsidy at the lower income levels.

Use the following link to determine the subsidy and cost of plans under ACA.

https://www.healthcare.gov/

LPR's are immediately eligible for ACA subsidies but after 5 years, they can buy into Medicare.

I don't know if it's different in California, but I helped a friend's mother sign up the WA Health Exchange a couple of weeks ago. She's been an LPR since Feb 2013 and we were told that, yes she could get health insurance on the Exchange, but no, she wouldn't be eligible for any subsidy for 5 years. She is 64 years old and will be paying $520.00 a month for a plan similar to the one I'll be getting for my mother.
In 5 years she would be eligible to buy Medicare and at that point, the tax credit (subsidy) would come into play.

Does anyone know whether it's a federal thing or varies by state?

I assume it is a federal thing as the subsidy is from the Federal Govt. It would be great if all the information I've gathered is wrong because the sudsidy would be a big help, but I'm pretty sure it isn't. Washington is one of the more generous states in terms of subsidies and other forms of help and I'm sure the navigator that helped us with my friend's application would have told us if there was a subsidy available from the State.

According to the information I found here http://aspe.hhs.gov/hsp/11/Immigrant...shtml#lawfully, I'd like to think that the navigator is wrong and that my friend's mother and my mother are in fact eligible for the premium tax credit; what they will not be eligible for is Medicaid despite their earnings being less than 133% of the FPL because they are LPRs for less than 5 years. I'll call the Exchange again to see if I can get someone more knowledgable to shed light on this.

If their income is less that 133% of the poverty level, the subsidy is free Medicaid but since they are LPRs, they aren't eligible for free Medicaid and since their income is below 133% of the poverty level, there isn't a subsidy to purchase private insurance through ACA. That is the way the bill is written.

States that opted out of expanded Medicaid have also put their low income residents without a lifeline since they are eligible for free Medicaid but the state opted out and therefore they are not eligible for a ACA subsidy to purchase private health insurance. This wasn't the way it was supposed to be but the supreme court ruled that states could opt out of expanded Medicaid (many republican states opted out even though the cost was paid for 100% by the federal government for 3 years and then only cost the state 10% after that).

Still a lot of confusion. I've just got off the phone with the Exchange and they are definite about my friend's mum (or my mum for that matter) not being eligible for the premium tax credit despite what is written in the document above. I was told that it's possible that as the above document was printed in April 2012, the information is outdated as a lot has changed since then. She suggested I call the U.S. Department of HHS for further clarification! Maybe I'll do just that!! I wasn't expecting any tax credit for my mum's health insurance anway, so not disappointed.

There seems to be some confusion between that document and my understanding. My understanding is that LPR's of less than 5 years with incomes below 138% of the poverty level are not eligible for ACA subsidies but the document seems to indicate that they can qualify for ACA subsidies if they pay 2% of their income towards the cost of health insurance.

Maybe that was the way the law was originally interpreted prior to the supreme court ruling but now US citizens that should be eligible for free Medicaid in states that opted out can't get free Medicaid or ACA subsidies, that condition for new LPRs may have been removed from the entitlement.

Having worked in health care in many countries for a long time before moving to the US, no one was happier than I was when talk about health care reform and reducing the cost began; I have to say that I'm so disappointed with the result. Premiums are still so high and I wouldn't mind these high premiums if POS was free, but it's not and as things stand, health care is still unaffordable. My friends say I should be patient, give the reform time to actually work out all the glitches and unknowns, that in a few years when the dust has settled, things will finally be the way they should be. One can only hope they're right! I still haven't understood why the Medicare model wasn't replicated. It may not be 100% perfect but it's definitely better than what's out there now.

The Medicare model (single payer system) would have been impossible since there are conservatives in the democratic party and they needed all 60 democrats in the senate to pass the bill. In fact Evan Bayh (D-IN) mounted a campaign to get support from other democrats to kill health care reform. Evan Bayh's wife is on the board of directors for Wellpoint (the largest managed care Blue Cross/Blue Shield organization) with a salary of over $15 million while Evan was in the senate but was just a small time lawyer until Evan was elected to the senate.

Therefore health care reform had to be done the hard way.