Is the ACA gone or not?

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@CarlP799778 wrote:

With NO subsidy, my premium was going to go up to $1280/month. He said, If I can get my taxable income down below $ 62,500 ( he actually put it in as $ 61,020, but close enough ) I would quality for a subsidy of $1870/month, so my premium goes down to zero.

 

He also said that, since I paid the full $1280 for Jan and Feb, I would get it back as an overpayment with my refund next year. Of course, I have to be really careful to get it down below $62.5K, or I'm screwed next year.

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These numbers aren't making any sense to me.   $61,020 is the pretty much the highest income someone can have and still qualify for any subsidy at all, and at the top end of the scale the subsidy is usually fairly small.  A $1,870 subsidy by itself is astronomical, and even if it does exist, I'd be shocked beyond belief that it applies to someone at the top end of the subsidy-qualifying range.

But I'm flying kind of blind because there are so many variables.  I ran some numbers for a 64-year-old in Los Angeles, and they're nothing like what you're reporting.  It would really help if I knew your zip code and age.  If you prefer not to be specific, you could be off by a year or two on age, and you could use a zip code near you but not yours.  That's the only way to get accurate information.

I will say that you don't HAVE to have any subsidy applied against your premium.  It's called an advance tax credit--advance because you get it before you file your taxes (by applying it toward your premium every month).  But you can pay the full premium, and have your taxes reduced by the subsidy when you file your taxes.  You'll net the same amount either way--it's just a matter of whether you got the money monthly over the course of the year or in a lump sum at the end.

That's what your insurance guy is talking about for January and February, only it would be for the whole year.  

That's the safest thing to do, because if you somehow miss the mark on getting your MAGI low enough to qualify for a subsidy, you won't be in trouble for having entered the wrong income and taking money that you weren't entitled to every month.  

Also, you can run the numbers yourself at Covered California's website, or healthsherpa.com.  I found healthsherpa easier to use because you can easily change the income to see what effect it has on the subsidy--on Covered California's website, I was having to start over at the beginning every time I wanted to change the income.  But on the ones I did enter, the results on healthsherpa and Covered California were similar.

But I'd still like to be able to get some more specific data on your situation.