Forgot to Cancel ACA Marketplace Insurance When Employer Coverage Started…

My wife and I were both unemployed for a few months, and we purchased an ACA Marketplace health plan, and because we had 0 income, we qualified for a subsidy that covered 100% of the cost of that plan for the months of January, February, and March. My wife got a job with a group rate health plan, and we got insurance through her employer effective on her start date of March 1st.

I let the marketplace broker we had worked with to purchase our interim plan know of the change immediately, but she asked me to follow up again after the employer plan had gone into effect, and I just forgot.

So, we’ve had both insurance plans active for the months of March, April, and May. The ACA Marketplace plan has been being covered 100% by the subsidy, or advanced tax credit, as they call it, and we have never received any sort of bill for that insurance, so…it just slipped my mind.

Today, realizing my mistake, I contacted the Marketplace broker and asked if we could back-date our cancellation, and she said she would try, but that she didn’t think it was going to be possible. She confirmed my fears, that we would likely be on the hook for the full premium for the months we had both policies in effect, as, having insurance means you no longer qualify for an ACA subsidy.

We’re a family of 3 who are barely above poverty level, and we’ve been paying about 1/4 of our gross income for the employer plan through my wife’s work. Having to pay back 3 months of additional premiums, at ~$1,200 per month for the ACA plan would just about break us.

Based on what I could Google about this scenario, having to pay that money back will likely come in the form of a penalty when we file our 2023 taxes.

Since March 1st we have been using our new insurance provider for all of our medical needs. And I provided the broker with our proof of coverage, etc.

Can anybody offer any advice on how to navigate this?