Wisconsin – Pregnant and unmarried (with plans of marrying in the near-ish future) – Not sure how any of this works??

33F. Currently pregnant with our first. I am currently employed and do have health insurance through my employer. BUT I am planning on not going back to work after the baby is born. My maternity leave is 12 weeks unpaid and in order to even keep my benefits through that leave, I have to pay the premium up front and a month in advance – it doesn't even seem worth it to me at this point since I'm already struggling at work due to this pregnancy. Also, with having so much that needs to be done at the house before this baby comes (since we just bought the place in April and it needs work) I have thought about just quitting now and seeing what other options I have for insurance while "unemployed." We do have a farm that has not started to make any money yet (again, we just moved in in April) but should start soon. I also make some (but not much – although I think I can increase the amount I make with more time being able to be spent on this) off of selling things on poshmark/ebay. I also have $20,000 in my savings.

My partner is also 33. He has a good paying job for our area ($35/hr right now but has the potential to earn more on certain jobs) but does not have health insurance as of right now. The company told him to find himself a plan on the marketplace and then let them know the cost and they would just bump his pay up to help cover the insurance. I have gone on the marketplace myself and have entered his information to see what plans are available for him. I've also tried entering that he has a spouse that's pregnant to see what the difference would be if we were married and it shows that I wouldn't even be covered even if we were married and that I would qualify for Medicaid (if I quit my job now).

If I go to the Medicaid website, it wants me to either A.) include household income, which I interpreted as his income too since we live together and then that makes me not qualify because he makes too much (so this seems contradictory to what I said in the above paragraph), or B.) if I don't include his income, then it implies that he would have to pay child support?? Even though we live together and have intentions of getting married eventually.

I don't really know what to make of all of this or what my best options are. Does anyone have any advice at all? Am I not reading things properly? I'm so confused lol

submitted by /u/TaterrrTot3
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