# I don't find it to be a very Affordable Care Act. **URL:** \ **Category:** Miscellaneous and Personal Stuff I Must Share\ **Created:** [March 6, 2016, 7:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134 "2016-03-06T19:11:26Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 8\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/21 "2016-03-08T01:45:07Z")
N/M posted too fast ---
**Author:** ![GreasyJack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/df705f/32.png) [@GreasyJack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreasyJack)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/22 "2016-03-08T01:52:28Z")
Do you know how much you ended up owing in taxes? With the $10k in out of pocket and at least $7k in premiums, you should have a pretty massive medical expense tax write off. You can write off the medical expenses that are over 10% of your income (7.5% if you’re over 65) which should be at least 5k, and you can write off insurance premiums if you paid them yourself. I _think_ the medical expenses affect what your income is for purposes of the ACA subsidy, but I’m not sure exactly how that works (since you’re obviously not allowed to write off the subsidized premiums, but if the write-offs affect how much your premiums are subsidized… I don’t know.) Another vote for having someone take a second look at it. ---
**Author:** ![Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/85e7bf/32.png) [@Hey\_Hey\_Paula](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hey_Hey_Paula)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/23 "2016-03-08T03:19:31Z")
> [@gigi](#): > > He said he estimated based on his 2014 income of $27K. Oh, OK, and then he ended up having an income of nearly twice that. That makes more sense now. ---
**Author:** ![not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/not_what_you_d_expect/32/3246_2.png) [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/not_what_you_d_expect)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/24 "2016-03-08T04:22:13Z")
I had something similar happen to me. I am in California and began the year unemployed. I got a job in February, but because it takes so long for Covered California to relay that information to the insurance company and then more time for the insurance company to make the change, I ended up receiving several months worth of subsidy that I no longer qualified for. It sucks. ---
**Author:** ![GreenElf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/9de053/32.png) [@GreenElf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GreenElf)\ **Post date:** [March 8, 2016, 6:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/25 "2016-03-08T18:36:50Z")
> [@zuer-coli](#): > > I had my taxes done at one of the **well known national preparers** , they used their no doubt proprietry software, still might be a good idea to have it double checked. Bolding mine. When you walk into H&R Block or such, you may sit down with an enrolled agent if you’re lucky, but you’re more likely to sit down with a first-year tax preparer who doesn’t know much more about taxes than you do, in which case, they may have bypassed key questions in the software. I suggest you take this information to a local CPA or enrolled agent. ---
**Author:** ![zuer-coli](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/z/ba9def/32.png) [@zuer-coli](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/zuer-coli)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 1:44am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/26 "2016-03-10T01:44:39Z")
> [@GreasyJack](#): > > Do you know how much you ended up owing in taxes? With the $10k in out of pocket and at least $7k in premiums, you should have a pretty massive medical expense tax write off. You can write off the medical expenses that are over 10% of your income (7.5% if you’re over 65) which should be at least 5k, and you can write off insurance premiums if you paid them yourself. I _think_ the medical expenses affect what your income is for purposes of the ACA subsidy, but I’m not sure exactly how that works (since you’re obviously not allowed to write off the subsidized premiums, but if the write-offs affect how much your premiums are subsidized… I don’t know.) > > Another vote for having someone take a second look at it. Greasy Jack Total tax including Excess advance premium tax credit about $11,500 Taxes withheld $4,800. My standard deduction was just a bit more than my out of pocket medical expences. I should have been more clear; the last large Hospital expence of 2015 got billed in 2016, alas having failed to be a bit more clear has not been very helpful, my humble apoligies to those folks who have been kind enough to respond to my OP Zuer-coli ---
**Author:** ![Rhiannon8404](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rhiannon8404/32/17929_2.png) [@Rhiannon8404](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rhiannon8404)\ **Post date:** [March 10, 2016, 3:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/27 "2016-03-10T03:21:34Z")
> [@not\_what\_you\_d\_expect](#): > > I had something similar happen to me. I am in California and began the year unemployed. I got a job in February, but because it takes so long for Covered California to relay that information to the insurance company and then more time for the insurance company to make the change, I ended up receiving several months worth of subsidy that I no longer qualified for. > > It sucks. This is exactly what happened to my cousin. She started last year unemployed, applied for the ACA and received a subsidy. Then she got a decent job with benefits (working at Panera…so not exactly raking in the big bucks). When she went to file her taxes, she discovered she owed a lot of money to pay back the subsidies. That just seems wrong. ---
**Author:** ![WildBlueYonder](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/ce7236/32.png) [@WildBlueYonder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildBlueYonder)\ **Post date:** [March 11, 2016, 1:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134/28 "2016-03-11T13:57:09Z")
> [@Wesley\_Clark](#): > > People can’t afford the premiums and out of pocket costs even if they have insurance. Bears reposting! [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/i-dont-find-it-to-be-a-very-affordable-care-act/748134.md?page=1)