The family glitch has been a highly discussed shortfall of the Affordable Care Act. In the quest to provide affordable health coverage for all families, this glitch has unfortunately made that goal nearly impossible for millions of families across the country.

Although the Affordable Care Act is primarily used by those who do not have the option to get health insurance through their employer, there are many who are offered healthcare from their job, but it just is not affordable. Part of the Affordable Care Act gives those who cannot receive "affordable" healthcare through their employer the opportunity to get their healthcare through their state marketplace and utilize the federal subsidies to lower their monthly premiums.

This was determined to be 9.61% of your household income in 2022. That means that if the offered health coverage cost more than that, you were still eligible to utilize subsidies on marketplace coverage.  Sounds great, right?

The glitch comes into play when you try and add your spouse and/or children onto your health plan. Even though the employer health coverage premium will undoubtedly increase if you do, the affordability is still calculated based on just yourself. So even if it would cost 20% of your household income to sign up your entire family, if it cost less than 9.61% to cover yourself then you and your family would be unable to use the subsidies on the marketplace.

The Glitch has been fixed for 2023!

After years of debate, the glitch has been resolved starting in 2023, just in time for open enrollment (November 1 - December 15 for a January 1 start date). So, when looking at your options, now you will be able to look at the different plans on the marketplace as well for coverage for you and your family. In addition to fixing the glitch, the affordability percentage has been lowered to 9.11% of your household income!

In addition, the cost for just the employee and the cost for their family are separate. That means it is possible for the employee to have access to affordable health care through their employer while their family does not, meaning that the rest of the family can use marketplace coverage, while the employee would need to have the coverage through their employer.

If you have questions, please send me a message or leave it below, and we can set up a time to get together and go over all available options for you and your family!