I'm having a hard time understanding options if i decline employer coverage

I am having a hard time understanding if there are penalties for declining employer-based health insurance and deciding to purchase insurance through the marketplace. Based on my salary and the premium I pay for our family on the high-deductible plan, the premium ($$ per paycheck x 26 pay periods) ends up being 9.37% of my annual salary.

This is outside of the 8.39% range that the website says is "affordable". Does that mean if I choose to buy health insurance through the marketplace I would get the full subsidy it estimates or are there factors I'm not aware of?

Ultimately, I'd like to not pay so much for our insurance which we hardly need to use, yet pay almost 10% of our salary toward. What are my options? (I'm only calculating the health insurance premiums in my numbers here, not dental or vision care). I pay ~250 per paycheck for our families health insurance premium.

submitted by /u/symphonicrox
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