Unfortunately, it doesn't matter what the 'spirit' of the law says. It only matters what the actual law says, and unfortunately your NOL messes things up.
But the original law intended for those who had the lower AGI (including NOLs) would qualify for free Medicaid. Unfortunately that aspect of the law was ruled unconstitutional so some states did not follow through with that aspect of the law. That is why I recommended you look into Medicaid. If your State has 'expanded' Medicaid, that would cover you.
There were several other problems in the ACA (such as situations like yours), and unfortunately Congress never corrected them. So we are stuck with a system with known problems.
