Spouse's employer has to start offering health insurance. However, doing so will f**K things up for us and our Marketplace plan. Things get much more detailed inside...
So, my wife's employer has discovered that their little home health business now has the requisite number of full-time employees to require them to offer health insurance. In fact, they crossed that number a few months ago, and they have to offer insurance asap. Which brings us to our problem...
My wife and I (me 63, her 64) currently have a joint Marketplace plan and enjoy substantial financial assistance to make it relatively affordable. My wife, due to a cancer diagnosis and subsequent treatment, maxed-out her deductible for the year early in the year. Starting this February, when she turns 65, she will transition to Medicare coverage. As for me, I will have to rely on the Marketplace for another two years or so.
When my wife's office offers health insurance, she must accept the insurance or stay on our Marketplace plan. However, if she stays on the Marketplace plan, we will no longer qualify for financial assistance and will have to foot the full cost of the coverage, which will be well into four figures, which we will not be able to afford, even for the few months left before she goes on Medicare. Most importantly, going on her employer's insurance would void her paid-up deductible on our Marketplace plan, and starting over on a new, much higher, deductible, just as a string of follow-up tests will hit.
Here's the question...
Would it be legal for her employer to convert her to a 1099 contractor, just for the rest of the year until she starts Medicare, so that we can keep our affordable Marketplace insurance and her valuable paid-up deductible? And, then, hire her back-on as a salaried employee when she goes on Medicare?
This seems like the best, most obvious solution, but the ins-n-outs of medical insurance are so labyrinthine as to make us all think the solution can't be so easy as that. Or, is it?
Yes, I know YANML. But, you might actually be someone who knows the system quite well and, hopefully, give us some helpful guidance on this conundrum.
Thanks! |
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