Monthly bills increasing due to my income going up. Feels like I'm not making any progress. Healthcare alternative to marketplace?
I'm just...really lost and scared with all this. I feel like I've never made more money in my life, but at the same time so squeezed at the same time.
So, my wife and I have an enormous amount of debt in the form of student loans. Unfortunately (or, fortunately?), since I've been making a little more money, obviously this has caused our healthcare subsidy to decrease. Similarly, now that I'm making more money, we're pretty likely to get denied for income based referral on student loans later this year. So now, not only is our healthcare more expensive, but I'm preparing myself for another monthly bill to add to our pile. It's like...I just paid off a credit card to free up our ability to pay off debt, and it's about to instantly get replaced because I make more money now.
How am I supposed to make any progress with this? The easiest way to do this would be to spend less on our healthcare, which we never use. Unfortunately, without a subsidy, any plan that isn't worthless would cost us between like, $450 and $650 a month. I was excited to make more money recently...until realizing that it feels like any money I make is just going right back into our healthcare. I feel like we were more steadily paying off debt when we had less money, if that makes sense. I've never really been nervous about making more money before.
The easiest way to remedy so much of this would be to find an employer that will pay for healthcare...but it's kind of rare in my line of work (creative).
Edit: I Do get a small reimbursement from my employer, but at the moment, all it does is REPLACE money that I get on the exchange. It means I'm using less of a tax break and am less risk to pay back any underestimated income, but it feels pretty pointless.
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We're running up against exactly the same problem, I wish I had an answer. for both of us. If my health were better I'd drop the Marketplace totally, (and I may be forced to financially, despite really needing health insurance) it's costing me thousands of dollars per year for the privilege of spending more thousands before the insurance kicks in in the form of deductibles and copays. I do wish there was an answer. But I haven't been able to find one. We did start our own S-corp in order to reduce taxes and now we pay the premiums from pre-tax dollars but it's not a direct write off for S-corp owners. But it's better than paying it all after self-employment taxes. Health insurance is a complicated expensive mess.
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I spent about 3 years in this transitional phase when I moved from the 20k's to the mid 30k's. I lived in rent controlled housing with assistance, qualified for some different programs here and there and was actually living pretty comfy at that unreasonably low level of income. new job and suddenly i found myself struggling, factor in Obamacare(at the time) and I would have gone broke. At the time of writing this in a "state of emergency" over COVID, I can say honestly as a healthy young adult I would NOT be investing 400-600 monthly in a service that I rarely use. adding $400 back into your budget actually takes a lot of stress off and reduces your chances of overdrafting or paying late fees. You might find that by cutting that $400 expense you actually put 5-600 in your pocket because you have free yourself from unintended expenses, not to mention the interest you will save if you are putting it toward overpaying on loans at will. I will always say the the Best Insurance policy is a big pile of cash.
One thing that helped me a lot was budgeting based on 4 paydays per month, not for 52 a year(paydays are weekly). if you are sticking to Nerdwallet's 50/30/20 budget based on 48 paychecks you will find that you have roughly 4 months with extra paydays in a year. that extra paycheck can help you catch up, or be a great savings for rainy day or medical expenses or vacation time.
i know it is frustrating and disheartening, but keep fighting that good fight, you will find that it is much more fulfilling to pull it off on your own than having the govt subsidizing your life. You WILL come out on top and you will both be stronger for it.
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2 suggestions from someone who went through this: (me)
1) enroll with a Direct Primary Care doctor - this is the one I use https://www.greenhillsdirectfamilycare.com/ you can learn all about it there, I'm sure there are some in your area ie. I rolled my ankle and got an xray, cost? $31 AND no copay, I went to see her NEXT day
2) you can join a member sharing health plan, ACA compliant and all - this is the one I use https://sedera.com/
With this member sharing plan I receive 10% off for having a DPC, so it saves me $30/month. My monthly cost for this health plan = ~$255 a month($1000/need deductible), as opposed to $450 a month for a traditional plan with a crazy deductible + copays to see a doctor
3) get an Health Savings Account (HSA, tax deductible) - this is the one I use https://hellofurther.com/
While you can't use an HSA to pay for insurance or a DPC plan, make sure you use it for EVERYTHING else related to medical expenses, saves you hundreds in TAXES yearly! (contact lenses, solution, glasses, prescriptions, etc etc) Whether you have health insurance or not, GET ONE!
Hope that helps, best of luck :)
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