Health Insurance Blog

What is the family glitch?

The family glitch is a term used to describe an issue with health insurance coverage that arose from the Affordable Care Act. This issue was that “affordable” employer coverage was based solely on the employee’s cost of coverage, NOT the entire families.

If an employee had “affordable-coverage” they were not able to use the marketplace. Using a family of five for example; if the employee’s insurance and their spouse were covered at 100% cost through the company, but the business didn’t elect to pay for ANY of the children's premium it leaves the parents with a very high cost to insure their kids. Without the option to utilize the Marketplace and the available tax credits many families were spending thousands of dollars a year unnecesarily.

Have they fixed this issue?

The short answer is yes! As of 2023 in order to help these families get the assistance they need, the Marketplace has determined what threshold a family can fall within to qualify for Marketplace insurance. The number to pay attention to is 9.12%. If a family is spending more than 9.12% of their household income on their employer insurance, that coverage is deemed unaffordable and they can then qualify for Marketplace insurance.

Why switch to Marketplace Insurance?

One of the main reasons to switch off of employer insurance to the Marketplace is because of affordability. Spending close to 10% of your yearly income JUST on health insurance is a huge cost, the Marketplace offers opportunities to help cut that cost way down, and in some circumstances it can even lower the cost of health insurance down to $0! If you’re wanting to see if Marketplace insurance is right for you, talk to one of our licensed brokers and we can help guide and consult you and your family to the plan that best fits your needs.