We have a weird situation. My employer offers me full medical/dental/vision coverage (100% premium paid by employer). I recently got married, and while my wife can be covered as a dependent, my employer will not pay any of her premium. Her portion of the premium can come out pre-pax from my paycheck.
However, my HR and the insurance broker they use have onerous requirements to on-board her. Without going into unnecessary details, we think it might be cost-neutral and less tiresome for us to simply buy an appropriate level of coverage from the Covered California (Obamacare) exchanges.
My questions for the experts are:
1. Is there anything stopping us from doing this? (i.e., the fact that I could put up with the hassle and have her covered, that an employer is, in theory, willing to offer her coverage, etc).
2. Since I can't pay her new premium pre-tax from my paycheck, is there a way to regain the tax advantage later on, by reporting the amount off a 1095-A?
3. Any tips, cautions you're willing to offer.
Many thanks in advance.
This appears to be a question that is more appropriately answered by healthcare.gov. They provide the following phone number to answer questions: 1-800-318-2596 Since the phone number gets removed then go here to find it: https://www.healthcare.gov/blog/answers-to-your-top-health-insurance-questions/