Married filing separately/ Self-employed attempting to enroll for health insurance tax credits?

Hi there!

My wife and I are self-employed in Oregon and attempting to sign up for health insurance (USA) through healthcare.gov but soon realized to our dismay, we don’t qualify for premium tax credits due to filing married but separate. The reason for this is another topic but at this point we want to keep it this way. After multiple calls, the support had no other ideas aside from filing married jointly. Currently bringing in roughly $54000 annually as a household.

Without the tax credit, we would be paying $680 premium with a $17000 annual deductible ‘Bronze’ plan… If we wanted the ‘Gold’ plan we would be paying $1000+ premium and $8000 annual deductible. For some this may still be affordable but we cannot afford this and we don’t qualify for Medicaid. We are planning on starting a family this year and have gone without health insurance for 3 years now (Fortunately).

Does anyone have any ideas or resources for this unique situation? I don’t like the idea of attempting a family without insurance but also feel like the ‘Bronze plan’ is a joke.

Also, if someone has a better thread suggestion please let me know.

Thank you!