Yes! There are a few creative options to attempt to lessen my “burden.” Also, just so everyone knows (and I hope this is actually accountable): if you were denied subsidies at first, but then you do your taxes and find out you actually qualified that year, you receive the amount of the sub that you should have received in your tax refund. However, the opposite is true, and I have had experience paying back subsidies that i later no longer qualified for (due to marriage). I hope there are proper checks and balances in place with the IRS just like my appeal case worker told me!! To anyone in my or OP’s position: talk to your accountant.

I call this the American Nightmare.

I’m assuming this solution was as serious as the joining the National Guard one. Sometimes it can be even suckier when your job provides health benefits but the plans aren’t good. Then you’re in the same boat as [me and] the OP if you want to insure yourself otherwise. And I can speak from personal experience that marrying someone with health insurance does not work out well all the time, it can sometimes be even more expensive than opting to insure yourself through the marketplace regardless of if the premiums come out of their paycheck before taxes.

I feel this. I’m UNDER the income threshold but was still denied. When I asked why, the woman said the blackbox algorithm just said so, she didn’t know why I was denied. So I had to file an appeal. Now that I have an appeal on file, Vermont health connect cannot legally speak to me on anything to do with my case. The appeals phone line never answers. This is not going to be resolved in time for renewal, so I will end up sticking with my current plan which is the cheapest, which has gone up from $580 a month to $660 a month. Perhaps the appeal will work, and I will get tax subsidies for my February payment, onward. This was a huge eye-opener moving from Pennsylvania where plans were about half the cost. And to anyone who likes to talk about expenses going towards deductibles, that means absolutely nothing when the cheapest plan has a $9000 deductible, and you would be paying the difference if you were to go with a higher premium plan for a lower deductible.