Do Married Couples Have to Apply Together for Obamacare?

I absolutely agree. My fiancé and I fall into that same category. We would love to get married, but because of my chronic health problems and inability to work, I am currently unable to contribute financially to our household. While he makes enough to pay all the bills, including a very modest mortgage, we have zero money left for anything else, never buy anything frivolous, and to avoid the chance of future debt, neither of us have credit cards. If we were to get married, as two people who have made responsible choices and thus don’t have any children, we would be paying astronomical prices for health insurance.

As it stands, I qualify for free health insurance, which doesn’t cover much, but is better than nothing. I have had to stop seeing all of the specialists who were quite essential, however, and because of that, it’s unlikely that I’ll ever be well enough to work again. Though I have applied for disability, because of my age and level of education earned before becoming disabled (I have a masters degree), they feel there are some jobs that I can still do on a part-time basis. Considering that my skull is crushing my brain stem (Chiari malformation), the insurance plan I was paying for before the ACA is now way out of my price range, and my free plan won’t pay for me to see a Chiari specialist, even working a part-time job is currently impossible.

Before the ACA, my fiancé and I could have gotten married and both had coverage under the excellent plan his employer used to offer, free of charge, to his employees. After the ACA went into effect, however, his employer could no longer afford to provide health insurance with the increased premiums that the ACA required, and he opted to drop the company health insurance plan.

We are now left with the choice to not get married or get married and give up my insurance plan. Unfortunately, because of my medical complications which required a spine surgery last year and will require another fairly soon, I absolutely have to have insurance. We’re thinking of having a small vow ceremony without getting legally married, but it’s rather heartbreaking to see all of my friends getting married now that we’re in our 30s, and to truly want to marry the man I have chosen to spend my life with, but not be able to solely because of the ACA.

Once again, the plan favors those who can work hard but won’t, or those who are irresponsible and have 5 kids that they can’t afford to properly care for, and those of us who work very hard and have made responsible decisions are penalized. If my fiancé makes enough to support us both but can only afford the bare essentials on a single income, I fail to see how that puts us so above the poverty line that we won’t qualify for any subsidies or assistance. I’m essentially being rewarded with free insurance by not working, which is ridiculous. Believe me, I miss working; I worked full time to pay for living expenses while attending college with a full academic scholarship, and I am devastated that I cannot currently contribute to society. Meanwhile, my fiancé can’t afford insurance despite working very hard to climb his way up the ladder with 25 years of employment under his belt. The system makes zero sense, aides the lazy, and yet because people mistakenly think this is government-supplied healthcare, it’s totally acceptable and looked at as some kind of miracle.