Has anyone applied for the Market Place 2018 (Obama) health care insurance or had it before?

I did it for 2017. I feel like I didn’t have great advice from other people when I did. I will likely make too much money and wind up owing money. I knew I would be cutting it close though, I knew it was a risk. If you will be well under the income limits I think it’s very worth it for you to go through the marketplace. I didn’t use my last year salary, as it was more than double what I knew I would make this year. I used an honest estimate of what I thought I would earn in 2017.

I had a BCBS rep help me in the end, and she knew lots of information, I didn’t just do it myself online.

What I wonder now is if I could have gotten a cheaper policy if I had at the outset assumed I’d make too much money this year. I’ll hopefully figure that out next week for 2018. I dont blame the BCBS rep, I went in thinking the marketplace and subsidy was going to be my best option, I wish I had had a broader discussion with her.

So it might help us out if we put a higher amount that we will make
even if we know we won’t make that much? Did you have to show your
past taxes that you filed? We have no check stubs etc as we work off our farm
but we have never had to pay any income tax because of all the deductions.
We have a CPA that has done our taxes for ages. So you suggest getting
an insurance agent to help us?

No. Put what you really think you will make. Don’t go higher. Get the subsidy if you can. I didn’t show anything, I just entered what I thought it would be. The big problem is if you are near the top. I think it’s $64k for a couple. Maybe $62k?? Anyway, under whoever it is you get $300 a month from the government. If you go over the cut off you get zero. The drop off is ridiculous. You can get more subsidy if you make a lot less.

One thing that confused me is if it was adjusted gross income or your actual gross income. I’m still confused about it. This is where I think I’m going to get screwed. Ask about it specifically or look it up so you give the right number. I think with the interest I make on my savings it will definitely put me over. I might be over anyway with regular income, I’m not sure. It will be very close for me.

Income tax doesn’t really have anything to do with it.

There are people employed specifically to help you. They are loosely called “navigators.” It’s their job, to help you get what you need. If you’re in a red state, the GOP deliberately makes it harder to enroll, so you may have a tougher time.

It was a lot of jumping through hoops, for me, but worth it. When I signed up again this month, there was an option to just do it the same as 2017. That was way easier than redoing it…

Good luck.

My husband said he thought our actual gross income might be around 60,000
but no more… BUT our adjusted gross income is 0-zero. (Because of all farm deductions).
Can you tell me anything with these figures? And yes we are in Tennessee so I doubt I can get any really good help like MrGrimm888 said. I called the 800 number and they gave me 2 names of people in my area that could help. We live on a farm way way out so wondering where they got these people. Any additional thoughts would help.

^You just have to pursue it. Once you get a decent person to talk to, it’ll probably be easy. Well. As easy as anything involving the government…