HealthCare.gov enrollment aides scramble to help those in coverage gap avoid federal penalty

Stephanie Daugherty earns too much from her part-time job at a doctor’s office to qualify for Medicaid, but not enough to comfortably afford one of the health plans for sale through the federally-run insurance exchange that Texas and many states use. So the 26-year-old nursing student and mother paid a $180 tax penalty – 1 percent of her annual income – to spend another year uninsured.