Florida Health Insurance Exchange

Hello everyone. Over the next couple of months I want to add a series of posts regarding the effects of the new Affordable Care Act, or ACA for short.

I want to add real life instances; good and bad of how the ACA has impacted real people.   Today I want to start with a friend and client of mine.   She is about 50 years old and is married.  She works at a local chain restaurant and found out today that she will be able to purchase health insurance through her employer at a cost of 30.00 per week  This covers her only and if she wants to add her husband to her health insurance plan it will cost her an additional 180.00 per week.  With an income of around 300 per week she finds she will not afford to cover her husband.

Initially we thought she would qualify for a subsidy, but unfortunately she does not.   Reason number one..   the law states that she would qualify for a subsidy if, and only if, her employer did not provide her with employee only coverage that was considered affordable.  Well at 30 per week her Florida health insurance is considered affordable because it does not cost her more than 9.5% of her income.  It does not matter that it would cost her more than 600 per month to add her husband.  Reason #2.. In order to qualify for a subsidy a person must make between 100 and 400% of the Federal poverty level.  With a family of 2 she would need to make in excess of 450 per week.   But even if she were to make more she would still disqualify for a subsidy due to reason # 1.  At this point there is no solution.  Fortunately due to her income she may not have to pay the penalty.

For a no hassle health insurance quote on or off the exchange visit our on health insurance marketplace quote engine