The Treasury Department released a new rule to fix the family glitch that prevented many working families from getting subsidies through Affordable Care Act (ACA) health plans. Before the rule change, employees qualified for an ACA subsidy only if the cost of their job-based coverage was considered unaffordable based on an IRS-determined threshold. But the IRS looked only at how affordable it was for the worker to pay for insurance, not the cost of covering the entire family.
The new rule requires covering the cost of the family to be used to determine if job-based insurance is affordable. That means that workers are eligible for ACA subsidies if their share of the premium for their job-based coverage is more than 9.12% of their expected 2023 income.
Not every family will save money by switching from job-based to marketplace coverage, so you need to weigh the benefits and costs. You need to look at all of the following:
- What covering you under your job-based plan will cost.
- What covering you and your entire family under your job-based plan will cost.
- What covering your entire family under an ACA plan will cost if you qualify for subsidies to reduce your costs.
You may find it more affordable to keep your job-based coverage and enroll your family in an ACA health plan.
American Exchange’s health benefit experts can help you decide what health coverage makes sense for both you and your family. Call us at 888.995.1674.