ACA Subsidies and Part time job Form 1095-C

[Much Fishing to Do]

So I'm coming up on my planned FIRE date and had planned to use the ACA marketplace and with my planned income in RE taking advantage of a very good subsidy.

My wife is serving a limited local elected government position and she just received a 1095-C from it.  The line 14 Offer of coverage was a 1A, which looks like it says coverage is offered to the family.

This is all kind of a shock to me, had no idea she would be eligible for insurance thru this.

Does this mean I will not qualify for the ACA Subsidies if she keeps this job?  (i.e. we have to get the employer based insurance and hope it is a decent deal?)  The ACA subsidies are worth a whole lot more than the job pays.

Sorry, I have no knowledge of any of this and its kinda blindsided me if I'm interpreting stuff correctly.

[seattlecyclone]

You're generally ineligible for marketplace subsidies if you have workplace coverage available. There's an exception for if the employee-only premium is above 9.6% of your income. Dependents can be charged more than this without granting eligibility for subsidies.

[Much Fishing to Do]

The employee-only premium is likely above 9.6% of what she gets paid for the job, but not above 9.6% of our family income. I'm sure our family premium will be over 9.6% of our family income, and over 100% of what she gets paid from that job, but sounds like none of that helps.

Well crap.  She loves that job but it sounds like its gonna be way too expensive to keep.  We'll take a look at plans offered but if its anything like what my employer offers me its gonna be extremely expensive for the family and we would save quite a bit of money if she quit (it literally pays like $5k/year, at the most)

[Chris @ Saturday Financial]

It's worth double-checking with her employer to be sure the information on the form is accurate. Mistakes with 1095-C forms are possible.

[Firehazard]

Code 1A applies only to full time employees.  If your wife is only earning $5K then she must be part time and the employer  used the wrong code.  She should inquire if she is actually eligible for the group plan and have them reissue a corrected 1095C. 

[Much Fishing to Do]

Code 1A applies only to full time employees.  If your wife is only earning $5K then she must be part time and the employer  used the wrong code.  She should inquire if she is actually eligible for the group plan and have them reissue a corrected 1095C.

Thanks for the heads up.  I may be wrong of course in calling her a "part time employee" (its not even clear what her hours/rate etc are, its an elected position which pays her $5k year to attend meetings/prepare for them/etc), but will make sure to sort it all out. 

[Much Fishing to Do]

Thanks for the smart replies on this.  HR got back to my wife and sure enough they had made a mistake.  They ensured her they will not make it again when sending next years form for 2022.

[Chris @ Saturday Financial]

Sure thing. Glad to hear that!