Premium subsidy questions for grad student

I turn 26 in October and will leave my parents' plan for the first time on November 1st. I've worked full time for years, but in April of this year stopped working as I entered grad school. I made ~$15,000 gross pay in 2024 before I stopped working. If I understand correctly, I wouldn’t qualify for insurance subsidies at this pay because I would be considered “Medicaid eligible”, but I also wouldn’t qualify for Medicaid because I have enough savings I’m living on that I’m disqualified in my state (Utah). Healthcare.gov isn't saying I qualify for any subsidy until I hit ~$21,000 but I assume that's a rough estimate.

I’m trying to start working Doordash and other gig-type jobs soon. Is my solution here that I just need to make enough of some other type of income that I can get over that Medicaid qualifying line? Will I need to verify I made a certain amount in order to start receiving subsidies, and is there any way to know the exact amount I’d need to get up to?

Additionally, I’ll graduate school next August and have a higher paying job once I do (not super high paying, maybe like $60k per year is a good estimate). Will I receive the subsidy I qualify for no matter what, or will I later have to pay a bunch of money back if I start making more next August? Or even worse, if my income ends up falling below the Medicaid line because I don’t get immediately employed after school or something happens, will I need to pay my entire subsidy amount back?

Thanks for any help or advice people can provide. If you can point me to resources for my own calculations I'd be thrilled, Healthcare.gov hasn't been super useful for me.

submitted by /u/CantaloupePossible33
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