Make sure you are fully aware of federal subsidies for your insurance premiums.
It's a bit complicated to explain the details, but basically you won't pay more than about 8.3% of your AGI for insurance, no matter what your income level is.
Alas, these subsidies may expire next year if Congress does not renew them (they don't actually vanish, they are just income-capped at 400% of the federal poverty level).
An annoying aspect of the subsidies is that they have an abrupt drop as you cross 400% FPL.
From 133% (if you are below 133% you are supposed to use extended Medicaid instead of a subsidized marketplace plan) to 400% the amount of the subsidy goes down bit is still substantial at 400%.
This can result in a situation where if your income is a little over 400% FPL you might come out ahead by taking a pay cat to get under.
There is no abrupt drop at this time. There is a smooth gradient in the percentage of AGI that "the 2nd most expensive silver plan in your state" can cost.
Next year, if Congress does not renew the expansion above 400% that was started during COVID, then there will the most abrupt drop possible at 400%: from something to absolutely zero.
My wife and I save at least $6000/year thanks to these subsidies, which put our health insurance into the same general realm as most other industrialized nations (typically 8-12% of AGI on health insurance of some kind).
This is ultimately the route we'll likely end up in. I was surprised to see we could make around $75k and the cheapest plans ($800/month) would be fully covered. That said, that opens a much bigger conversation related to tax subsidies and whether the ACA accomplished enough for the pros to outweigh the cons.
I appreciate the details you shared here by the way, very helpful for me and anyone else coming by seeing similar premiums and isn't aware of what subsidies do exist.
Absolutely. Even though the subsidies have been extremely beneficial for my wife and I, I seriously question whether or not the policy of handling excessive medical costs by paying private insurance companies money to make their insurance premiums affordable to everyone makes much (if any) sense.
If medical costs are indeed so high that our insurer needs $X from us each month to make health insurance viable, how does it help anything to make sure they get $X pretty much no matter what?
Do feel free to ask if you have any other questions about this. I do my own taxes, and have had to do a deep dive into the rules/forms for this stuff for several years now.
It's a bit complicated to explain the details, but basically you won't pay more than about 8.3% of your AGI for insurance, no matter what your income level is.
Alas, these subsidies may expire next year if Congress does not renew them (they don't actually vanish, they are just income-capped at 400% of the federal poverty level).