Income Rules For Partial Year ObamaCare Coverage
I will be on medicare for the full 2018 year but my wife will be on Obamacare for Jan and Feb and then go on medicare. Are the income rules the same for such a short period of time for the Obamacare coverage?
Answer
ObamaCare's income rules for assistance always consider your household income for the year, not what coverage you qualify for in a given month. So for example, if you qualify for marketplace coverage for only one month and Medicare only for 11 months, you can still get cost assistance based on your projected household income for the year for that one month (in each month of the year, you are taking 1/12th your total credits, you'll account for this on form 8962 at tax time).
You will however have to make sure your coverage is cancelled when Medicare starts. Generally speaking you cannot hold a private non-group non-Medicare plan and Medicare at the same time.
For the record, this is true for employer coverage and other coverage types like Medicaid too.
Is the income limit the same if I only had the insurance for 8 mouths of the year?
Yes, income is based on your taxable income for the year minus certain deductions for ObamaCare assistance. So it is always annual income regardless of how long you had coverage.
I had Obama care coverage from Jan-Aug 2020. My wife was unemployed until Aug and we went on her group insurance in Sept. When I did my taxes, I now owe money because they say my income was too high and that I didn’t pay enough for the Obama care. What can I do?
If it was that your income after august pushed you over the limit, then what you do is simply repay up to the repayment limit. https://obamacarefacts.com/advanced-tax-credit-repayment-limits/
If it isn’t that, maybe double-check your math on form 8692 and see what could have went wrong.