My next question: And I have been all over the Marketplace and Healthcare.gov websites and cannot find a simple answer to this simple question. Can my wife and I enroll in different marketplace healthcare plans? They ask for household income when you apply so I am not sure how they will calculate and/or split the subsidy between the 2 of us if we enroll separately in 2 different plans.
You and your wife can enroll in two separate plans. It might be more costly though. You will each be listed as applicant with no spouse/dependents. If you qualify for a subsidy, this is where it will get complicated if you file taxes jointly. They don’t have answers to that question on the website because that is almost never done. You will have to call them for assistance. However, if you make more than $45k as a single person, you don’t qualify for any help.
In my plan, even if you haven’t met your deductible, you have a straight co-pay for physicians visits. However, if any procedure is done, you have to pay the approved rate.
NJRes, the usual advice is to speak with your own exchange. Yes, you have to check costs. But this comes up when a spouse is covered by an employer and it’s either cost prohibitive to add the other to that plan or somehow not possible. They’d each end up with their own plans. And the other may or may not be eligible for a subsidy, depending.
We don’t know why you each would want or need your own plan.
Ok, this:
“In general, someone who is married must file a joint tax return with her/his spouse to qualify for premium tax credits.” Right there, you see how difficult it is to separate your income from the spouse’s, since both are reported on a joint return. There are some exceptions, but they’re tricky. Eg, qualifying for IRS Head of Household and apart because of domestic violence. That’s from the Kaiser Family Foundation, one of the solid resources on ACA. kff.org
You can be on different plans, you therefore would not benefit from any family deductible.
If you qualify for an subsidy, I would be very careful as each plan is looking at you alone, not together, just as withholding can be incorrect for someone working more than one job, subsidy calculation can be inaccurate for two married people on two different plans.
I have clients on different plans now.
Recently received our new rates for our ACA PPO through Covered California. Same exact plan, reduced by $600 a year. A few things went up (the copay for a specialist went up by $10 for example) but the annual cost went DOWN!
Love that my kids get dental! Love that my preexisting condition doesn’t keep me from getting health care. Love the ACA!
Maps showing the percentage of (still) uninsured. It tracks along with poverty and republican states that refused to expand Medicaid. Very striking.
The older map is almost completely purple. After the ACA the change is dramatic, except for those places where being uninsured seems to be becoming entrenched.
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Of course i didnt notice the cost of healthcare since i was the one purchasing the employer based medical insurance plan. Of course i was young and ignorant and didnt have health issues in my family. Its comical your assertions without knowing what i did as a living or my families medical issues. I lived the health insurance nightmare so i do have some knowledge. And fyi that check my mom was writing was not for a deductible. I think i’d know. There were no claim forms. And i gurss i never had that MRI or lab work back then which i did.
The main reason I am considering buying a different plan from my wife is that we each have different primary care doctors and next year (unlike the current year) they don’t take the same health plan! Our current plan is being discontinued so we have to select a new plan for 2016. The family deductible seems to be 2x the individual deductible, so I don’t see that as an issue. I hate talking to people with the 1-800 phone numbers because they always seem to know nothing, and I have zero confidence in the answers I get from them.
Have you talked to an insurance agent, NJres?