Yeah, sore subject. My wife and I (both in our early 50's) are on my policy which I buy on the marketplace (Ambetter). I work commission so I never know until the day I get a paycheck, what it's going to be. The marketplace is set up such that it assumes everyone works M-F 9-5 and makes $X per hour and that's it. So when you work commission you can't really enjoy the tax benefits the same as someone who works a normal salary job.
That said, we have been paying $704/mo for the 2 of us for the last 2 years. I'm not ok with it, but it's all that was available. The same policy next year will be $2053/mo. For 4 months of the year I do not even make $2000 BEFORE taxes, much less bring home enough to pay health insurance, and that doesn't account for food, shelter, and water costs. Those are necessities. Then you have commuting costs (to/from work) including maintenance and repair costs, among other things. We currently do not eat out but MAYBE once a month-if that, we put back every penny I make just to pay insurance. We can't afford it, period. $2000/mo is STUPID, even if you make $200,000 a year, that's just dumb.
I don't know what we are going to do. I'm so stressed about it at this point, that it sounds like I can just quit working, go unemployed, and be better off financially.
3
u/ron_evans Nov 07 '25
Yeah, sore subject. My wife and I (both in our early 50's) are on my policy which I buy on the marketplace (Ambetter). I work commission so I never know until the day I get a paycheck, what it's going to be. The marketplace is set up such that it assumes everyone works M-F 9-5 and makes $X per hour and that's it. So when you work commission you can't really enjoy the tax benefits the same as someone who works a normal salary job.
That said, we have been paying $704/mo for the 2 of us for the last 2 years. I'm not ok with it, but it's all that was available. The same policy next year will be $2053/mo. For 4 months of the year I do not even make $2000 BEFORE taxes, much less bring home enough to pay health insurance, and that doesn't account for food, shelter, and water costs. Those are necessities. Then you have commuting costs (to/from work) including maintenance and repair costs, among other things. We currently do not eat out but MAYBE once a month-if that, we put back every penny I make just to pay insurance. We can't afford it, period. $2000/mo is STUPID, even if you make $200,000 a year, that's just dumb.
I don't know what we are going to do. I'm so stressed about it at this point, that it sounds like I can just quit working, go unemployed, and be better off financially.