Healthcare…We will see – Blogging Away Debt Blogging Away Debt

by Hope

Ashley’s post on the opening of the 2025 Open Enrollment season reminded me that I planned to take a look at healthcare options when it opened up. I guess it’s time.

I’ve got to be honest, I’ve worked through the Healthcare.gov site a couple of times and found nothing helpful. First, the options for coverage it presents me are from unknown entities for the most part. And second, when I spot check them via their websites, finding providers anywhere near me is impossible. So what’s the point?

Secondly, I do not understand the whole, this is what it costs, this is what it will cost you (based on income, I believe) and then there’s a whole tax related cost section. Can someone please explain it to me like I’m 5? Because I do not understand.

With Variable Income

Since my income as a contractor fluctuates significantly from month to month, let alone year to year, I am always hesitant to take something at my “low income” point for fear of the repercussions when my income increases and that affect. And then vice versa, take something as a high income season, and then my income drops and I’m stuck with an obligation I can’t meet.

A couple of months ago, I reached out to a Health insurance brokerage, for lack of a better term, and they did the same thing I do…go to the government healthcare site and read me the options. Maybe I should try them again. But I’d feel more comfortable going in with a better understanding of the financial and tax repercussions based on being self-employed with variable income.

Any experts in this are in the BAD community that could explain it to me like I’m 5?

My dad suggested that the state of Georgia instituted some other healthcare measures. (He still gets his home town paper so he’s always informing me of things I don’t know.) I did a quick Google search at the time but couldn’t find anything.

Anyone know anything specific about a recent Georgia initiative?

Hope is a creative, solutions-focused business manager helping clients grow their business and work more efficiently by leveraging expertise in project management, digital marketing, & tech solutions. She’s recently become an empty nester as her 5 foster/adoptive kids have spread their wings. She lives with her 3 dogs in a small town in NE Georgia and prefers the mountains to the beaches any day. She struggles with the travel bug and is doing her best to help each of her kids as their finish schooling and become independent (but it’s hard!) She has run her own consulting company for almost twenty years! Hope began sharing her journey with the BAD community in the Spring of 2015 and feels like she has finally in a place to really focus on making wise financial decisions.