DW and I are reducing our work hours in April after realizing it's a bit much since having twins in December in addition to a 2 year old. We will no longer qualify for medical benefits from work starting in May. We can control our income for the remainder of the year enough to either be just below 200% FPL, or somewhere between 200% and 250%.
My question is whether our children will actually qualify for Medicaid if we go below 200%? Will medicaid allow us to estimate our MAGI or will they insist on using the 2021 MAGI, which is way too high. Is there a way for them to be on a subsidized ACA plan with CSRs if they are denied medicaid and we stay below 200%.
Also what will happen with the CSRs if we estimate our income below 200% but end up going above. It's possible we won't spend anything on health care and won't have needed the CSR, can we just harvest tax gains or convert some IRA money to ROTH at the end of the year if so and pay the additional premiums at tax time.
2021 MAGI - 140k, MFJ
Family size - 5 total, dependents age 0,0,2
2020 FPL for 5 member household, 32,470
in 2022 I will be working 16 hours a week after april and DW will stop work enitirely in April. We may go back to work in 2023, but we have enough savings to COASTFIRE from here on out if we decide it's good.
If anyone has any direct experience with medicaid in north carolina especially since we switched to managed care last year i will take any advice. Thank you!
Last question, I was looking at potential ACA plans and noticed a Bronze plan that was 0$ deductable. Is there a major pitfall for this kind of plan? It has high copays for hospitalizations and emergency room care, but it seems like even most gold plans have high copays.
