Generally when you don’t work you’d be under a certain income threshold and would therefore be eligible for Medicare. This law is really aimed at people in our age category, the 21-35 year old, and it’s a response to the skyrocketing healthcare costs associated with baby boomers getting old and feeble. The way insurance works is like social security: you pay into the system when you’re young and likely not using it and the old who need it are using the money you’re paying in. Then when you’re old the young are paying your costs and so on. The problem is there’s more old using it than young paying in. It’s basically a big ponzi scheme. So by requiring everyone to have it you’re pumping more money into the system which, theoretically, should lower the cost. Unfortunately we won’t know if this works for another 2-3 years.