About to lose MinnesotaCare due to my income, what’s the next step?

My income is $40k. Wife's income is $6k SSdI. She is disabled and cannot work.

I've been on MinnesotaCare (Ucare) for years, however with them not having me fill out annual paperwork, my income has increased significantly over the years and it puts me well out of range of the $36k to be eligible.

I work part time, so I believe the insurance offered to us part timers is very cheap ($60 a month) but covers virtually nothing. I was speaking to another coworker and the only reason he had it is to prevent him from being fined for not having health insurance (and in the event of a major health issue), but he said he's basically paying out of pocket for any doctor visits.

The full time insurance is more standard, looking at around $200 a month, but I'm not eligible for that.

I don't know fully what these plans are like and I will call HR and find out, but I'm just trying to get an idea on what I should do right now.

On the letter I received telling me I'm losing my insurance, it says I've been approved for "Qualified Health Plan with Advanced Premium Tax Credit/cost sharing reductions". When I go to MN sure to look at these plans, they don't seem to be affordable, deductibles in the thousands for the cheaper plans, and to lower those amounts to something reasonable I could be paying hundreds of dollars a month. I feel that if I were to ever need to use any of those plans heavily, it'll eat up a quarter of my income.

I feel like these are my options.

Give up a shift at work ($700 a month) to be eligible for MinnesotaCare again. Take a low cost high deductible plan from MNsure and just pay out of pocket for the 1 or 2 doctor apps I need a year. Go full time at my job and take their insurance (I work part time so I have extra time to take care of my disabled wife so this would be tricky). Have no insurance.

My wife is on Medial Assistance, however I believe the limits for this are even lower than they are for MinneostaCare, so I assume when she does her annual paperwork she'll get kicked off that too. As a disabled women with $6k personal income from SSdI, is she going to end up in the same situation as me? If so we'll be financially done for as she has many Dr apps and meds.

Hope this is all the information needed for you guys to advise. I'm originally from the UK and this is all new to me.

submitted by /u/jaytea86
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