Getting close (in a way). I called to ask why the last application I put in doesn't seem to take my Indian status into account. They claim an "advanced resolution specialist" should get back to me in about two days. In the meantime, I also looked up the older application I put in (before the church decision to cover my wife and put me on the Exchange but which *does* recognize my Indian status -- and where the website wasn't working properly before that meeting), and if I can't get the last application resolved to acknowledge Indian status, we may be better off if our church council can change their election to not provide any insurance at all (even though after the official deadline).
The church is paying about $520 a month to give my wife basic "gold" level coverage ($1000 deductible, $3500 OOP max), including dental for her at no cost to us (I'd still be on my own). IF I can get the exchange to accept that I should be able to get something with no cost sharing while my wife is covered and I'm not offered coverage... I should be able to get a bronze PPO plan (would pay up for that, the HMO plan sucks) for maybe $100 a month with no copays or deductibles at all. That would be best case -- here's the plan I could get:
http://www.bcbstx.com/pdf/sbc/33602TX0420005b.pdf
But here's the thing: If they can't do that on the Exchange, then if we can have the church rescind their offer to provide employee-only Gold coverage and provide no coverage at all, DW should be able to get comparable Gold coverage ($500 deductible, $4000 OOP max) for $277 a month after subsidy. I can get something for $114 with no cost sharing at all -- the lowest-cost Bronze PPO (again, the HMO sucks even if it's only about $50) -- and we can both get dental for about $35 each, or $70 total.
So the church is paying $520 a month or so for just her medical and dental, when in reality we could get everything for *both* of us for $477 (and I would have NO cost sharing). They could just give us pay in lieu of benefits for (say) $450 a month and we'd both come out ahead. Yes, there's loss of subsidy and loss of deductibility of health insurance premium... but I think we're still ahead on this. (Another option would be to have them authorize family coverage and set up her 2014 contract to take $380 less in pay per month to give me their health plan, but that would be stupid since that is a lot more expensive AND I'd lose the cost-sharing exemption.) DW gets similar coverage, I get ridiculously good coverage with no cost sharing even on a Bronze plan, the church pays less.... seems like a win-win-win situation in our particular case. If we can pull it off.
The good news is, if we screwed this up and can't fix it, it's only for one year at worst. (For what it's worth, in our situation the federal exchange website tells us that in our situation if we both need insurance, we should get two separate individual policies with the subsidy split between the two, because I'd need a "special" American Indian plan with no cost sharing that my better half wouldn't have access to. From what I can tell, this clause in the law was put in because of existing treaties between the US government and the recognized Indian tribes, stemming from the federal Indian health care obligations in those treaties.)
I just wish the website was working well enough on the 8th when the council held a special meeting to discuss this so this was very clear. We might not have to go back and ask our church benefits organization to change their election after the deadline. Hopefully if we have to, they will be understanding because of the nightmare that has been healthcare.gov.