Healthcare marketplace sounds too good to be true?

I've never looked into the healthcare marketplace because I've always had insurance available through family or an employer. Now, we're looking for insurance to bridge 3 months of coverage between employment.

Coverage ends today, and we have COBRA available through my wife's previous job at ~$2,000/mo. I was unemployed YTD and will be eligible for health insurance through my new employer on Aug 1.

The healthcare.gov pricing tool plus various third party estimators all say my family would be eligible for about a $1500/mo tax credit, making our monthly premiums ~$150. This just seems insane and too good to be true.

Are there any pitfalls I should be worried about before applying? Am I missing something, or am I doing something wrong?

I did my due diligence to estimate our annual income very closely. It wasn't very difficult, as I will have a fixed salary in my new position and my wife will not be working. Obviously, income YTD was easy to calculate through my wife's paystubs. Even if I drastically overestimate our income, we still qualify for a $1350/mo credit, meaning it's by far the better choice than COBRA.

I had no idea this tax credit was an option, so I just want some sanity checks to make sure I'm not missing something.

submitted by /u/Littlegator
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