My name’s Catherine I’m 25, I’m a stay at home mom to one child and my husband works full time. I’m currently still on my parents insurance but I turn 26 in November so I’d like to have a plan for being insured after that date. My husband and daughter are covered under the insurance from my husbands work the problem is if he adds me to his insurance the cost goes from 200$ a month to 800$ a month and there is just no way we can afford that.

He makes roughly 50,000$ a year but some months are better than others they mostly get paid in bonuses. We know having to add me on his insurance would be detrimental to our finances. I’m hoping I can individually sign up for obamacare, and that it will be less of a burden on our family. I only need the bare minimum of coverage, I’m fairly healthy and not planning on having any more kids , so aside from emergencies and being able to get birth control I don’t need much. I live in Midlothian VA . I don’t smoke and have no preexisting medical conditions. So what , if anything is available to me?

Thanks very much any information would be greatly appreciated.


If a spouse doesn't have access to an employer plan and is turning 26 they can get a Marketplace plan based on household income. The factor to consider here is that your husband's income will be factored into your cost assistance eligibility. Also if you have access to the employer plan and it costs less than 9.56% of your household income (after most deductions) you won't be able to get cost assistance due to rules on how coverage works.

You can learn what that means in regard to your subsidy eligibly here.

Make sure to use special enrollment when you lose coverage under your parents plan. You only get a limited window to enroll.

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