When DD started her grad school assistantship she was offered the same health insurance as other employees at the university. I encouraged her to take it as it was much better insurance (at a cheaper rate) than what we have through my employer. I saved nothing in premiums as I still have two other children on the plan. I did keep her on my dental plan.
However, DD has since graduated and will lose her university coverage starting on August 1. She has accepted a half time teaching position starting in the fall (slated to become a full time position in fall 2016) with no insurance. I had offered to put her back on my health plan but through her own research she felt it better to apply for Mass Health and pay their small premium (better coverage). She only just applied last week but was assured she should hear something back in the next few weeks.
romani, she is below that amount. Thank you for confirming what I thought was the case. She’s doing great things but she lives at the level of the people she is helping. Not sure what the next step is, just trying to think ahead.
electron. What are the chances your d can make $15,000 a year and thereby get almost free healthcare through the exchange? This is the direction I would head. However she HAS to make it or she has to pay back all the money…ugh.
@electronblue - If you don’t mind, what state is she in? Because of last week’s events, there is now a new push in some places to accept the Medicaid expansion.
@elctronblue , ACA subsidy eligibility is based on your estimated earnings. If your daughter estimates her earnings at $11,700 she will be eligible for subsidies. At some point she will be required to submit documentation to support that estimate, such as pay stubs and/or W-2 forms. If she can justify, even as a stretch, estimating that much income I would do so. If it’s really not even close, then I wouldn’t. I don’t condone this, but I have heard of people intentionally overestimating their income in order to qualify for subsidies. Also, I have read in more than one place that tax credit/subsidies will NOT have to be repaid if the individual ends up not making enough money to qualify for subsidies already received. If you make ** too much** money you have to repay the credits/subsidies already received.
NJ is correct. You are not penalized for overestimating income. HOWEVER, you can technically be in trouble for lying about your income but I sincerely doubt they’ll ever go after people who got insurance but they should’ve been on Medicaid. (This is not encouragement to lie.)
@sax in non-expansion states you only need to be 100% FPL to get subsidies- 11,700. It’s in expansion states that you need the ~15k income to qualify.
Don’t misunderstand me. You can absolutely get in trouble for saying you’ll make 15k when you are clearly not even going to be in the ballpark.
What I meant is that if you’re making, say, $300/week (enough to qualify for the subsidy if you make that every week all year) and then you lose your job and you only make $10k for the year then you are probably not going to be penalized. If you are only making $100/week and say you’re making $300 then yes you can absolutely get in trouble because you’re lying to the government.
If she’s close, maybe she can earn a bit by reselling things on ebay or similar or do some part-time work? It’s worth considering, as the subsidies are quite generous.
I don’t think we can work with “probably.” I think we can only work with fact.
If you lose your job halfway through the year you must report this to the healthcare site. At that point they
determine what happens to your healthcare.
Yes, you have to report it and you may be switched to Medicaid if you’re in an expansion state and you may be SOL if you’re in a non-expansion state (assuming you haven’t already earned enough in the year to be above Medicaid).