Do I need to get divorced/does my wife have to quit her job for a subsidy?

Hello,

I am self employed (I got a new job working remotely for a foreign company remotely in April but I’m pretty sure for tax purposes I’m self employed), and purchased an exchange plan for myself at that time. At the beginning of May, I got married and my wife was unemployed at the time. She recently got hired and it appears her employer offers health insurance to spouses at a completely unaffordable rate (insurance premiums would be ~25-30% of our after tax income), and with her new income our household is slightly above 400% of the federal poverty line.

I’ve been trying to figure this out on my own over the past few days and it seems like as long as we remain married, I’m screwed out of a subsidy. If we’re not married, then I would be eligible for a subsidy that would make health insurance affordable.

It seems like my options are: 1) Get divorced. 2) One of us quits our job (I make a little more than my wife, so it would probably have to be her). 3) I go without insurance.

Is there another option? I think I’m going to have to just go without insurance if not; I can’t really ask her to set her career back and I’d rather just take the risk than divorce the woman I love a month after our wedding because the law is broken.

P.S. Is there some kind of lawyer that specializes in these questions? I hope to receive help here but this is such a confusing stressful mess that I’d rather just spend some money to avoid making a mistake + having to pay back my subsidies.

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