“It was wonderful. It was very freeing,” said Lower, 56, of Bourbon, Ind., who is now babysitting her 5-year-old granddaughter full time. With the help of federal subsidies that kicked in Jan. 1, she is paying less than $500 a month for health coverage for herself and her husband…

Uneasy about going uninsured, Gonzalez-Novoa bought a low-cost, bare-bones private health plan last year, he said. But it did not cover his cholesterol medications, which cost $200 a month. It did not pay for the colonoscopy he needed because of a family history. He thought he would soon have to find another full-time job that offered better health insurance.

“I’d like to say that nothing would have stopped me, that I was mission-driven to this family commitment,” Gonzalez-Novoa said. But the lack of quality coverage, he said, “was really starting to wear on me mentally and physically.” He said that he thought he had about six months before he would have had to start job hunting again.

Then he discovered that his income was low enough to get a government subsidy to buy insurance under the health-care law. The plan, which costs about $170 a month, better met his needs and gave him carte blanche to stay at his nephew’s start-up indefinitely, he said — a job he is doing virtually for free.