Job loss and searching for insurance options… anyone been there?

Individual/Marketplace Insurance Forum
1

Hi everyone! My husband’s contract ended after 8 months, and we started looking for insurance in the marketplace. The prices really shocked us compared to what we’d actually get. We thought the unemployment would be brief, just a few weeks, but now they want him to move across the country, and we aren’t ready for that.

I teach online, but it’s just extra income. It varies from $600 to $800 weekly.

We have some savings, and we’d like to avoid draining it with high insurance costs if we can.

I’m 51, he’s 52, and we don’t go to the doctor often, just for regular check-ups and the occasional ear infection.

From our research, it looks like we’d be paying about $1400 a month for insurance, which seems to be the only option until he finds a new job with benefits. I wanted to ask here for advice from anyone who has been in a similar situation!

Luckily, our kids are on a government plan while he looks for work, so that part was easy to handle!

Thanks for any advice, this is our first time dealing with this.

2

Have you looked into Medicaid if you’re in one of the 40 states that expanded it?

3

Cale said:
Have you looked into Medicaid if you’re in one of the 40 states that expanded it?

Exactly.

HFL, what state are you in? Can you share your current household income and how many people are in your home?

4

@Mai
We’re in Iowa. He’s getting a bit over $600 a week from unemployment, and I make around $700 with my job, but that varies. I just found out that my 18-year-old, who is living at home for a year to save for college, counts towards our earnings. He’s not paying for expenses since he’s saving up. He makes about $700 a week. I’m not sure how this affects our insurance since he’s on state-funded care.

5

@Paris
I forgot to mention, there are five people living in our home.

6

@Paris
If your 18-year-old is making $2800 a month, are they filing as single for taxes? If you’re not claiming them as a dependent, you wouldn’t count them in your healthcare.gov household.

7

Vale said:
@Paris
If your 18-year-old is making $2800 a month, are they filing as single for taxes? If you’re not claiming them as a dependent, you wouldn’t count them in your healthcare.gov household.

That info is really important to accurately figure out the tax household.

The current income situation looks to be around $63K per year. That would give some substantial subsidies with a family size of 5. We need to confirm the household size.

8

@Paris
We didn’t claim him as a dependent. I double-checked before replying. Maybe we accidentally included him while going through the initial process on the site.

9

Just to clarify, there are 5 people in our household, including three kids.