obamacare/covered california question

[sonomaguy]

We have a kaiser permanente health plan with monthly premiums of $720 for a young family of four. The plan is grandfathered and it seems current similar plans offered by kaiser are in the 1k range. Last year and this year and likely going forward our earned income will be zero or very close to it.

Additionally, my wife is going to have knee surgery on May 18th, with a price tag of approx 7k. our deductible is 5500 and family OOP max is 10,500 but once hit we still are responsible for 35% of certain procedures.

Does it make sense to pursue an alternative option? would we qualify for any assistance with no income but significant assets?

thanks!

[frank]

I would check around as I have no heard of any means testing going on. maybe even an HSA plan would work for you.

[daylatedollarshort]

With zero income on the exchange I believe you would be put on Medi-Cal. There is no asset test. You can look at the covered California site to see what the minimum income you'd have to have on your O-MAGI to have a regular ACA policy.

Use this link and you can compare your current policy to what is available at zero and maybe a higher income if you could sell some stocks or do some Roth conversion or whatever -

https://www.coveredca.com/shopandcompare/

Personally I like the Bronze policies with an HSA, though we can use the tax deduction the HSA provides.