Meanwhile, Colorado, which has fully embraced the Affordable Care Act, is expanding its outreach to young people, in creative ways.

Guess this is what happens when the governor of your state got his start in the beer-brewing business: pic.twitter.com/eXAVMVVhC4 — Alec MacGillis (@AlecMacGillis) October 22, 2013

As we've noted, getting young people to participate in the health exchanges is important to keeping costs down, as insurers will get more income from people who get sick less often.

But there's a big state-based obstacle looming for the program. On Tuesday, the Wall Street Journal reports, a judge allowed a lawsuit against the Affordable Care Act to move forward. That suit argues that the subsidies that are part of the program — money provided by the government in order to reduce the cost of insurance plans for lower-income individuals — can't be given to participants in the federal exchange. The argument is that the law specifically stipulates that subsidies apply to insurance purchased through an exchange "established by the state." Since many states didn't establish exchanges, the suit argues, there should be no subsidy.

It's not clear if the lawsuit will succeed. If it does, the map above will even more accurately depict two Americas: one in which states provide an exchange offering subsidized insurance plans for residents and expanded coverage for the very poor; another in which residents are forced to buy unsubsidized insurance through the federal system — and the very poor are left with no coverage at all.

This article is from the archive of our partner The Wire.