Taxable status of health insurance premiums for family under new health care law

Question

My question is pretty much the same as this question, (and there are some older questions of the same nature) but well over a year has passed since it was answered, and with the new health care laws that have been enacted now in effect I am hoping the answer has changed.

Basically, I have a choice between covering my family under my employer's health care plan, or covering them separately from the Marketplace. The cost of each is similar, and the coverage is similar except for a weird deductible/gap coverage on the employer's plan versus a straight $0 deductible coverage on the marketplace plan. Overall we would prefer the marketplace plan if the costs are similar, and when signing up my wife was sure that there was something in the new laws which would essentially give us a tax credit (not the tax credit that you qualify for if you make under a certain amount) for the amount of tax we paid on the funds used to pay the premiums on the policy. However, we have not yet been contacted with regards to payments and the time is running out to sign up with the employer plan, and I have been unable to find any proof that this is really true.

Do I need to abandon this slightly better plan because it is actually going to cost more due to really being after tax dollars paying for it, or is my wife correct that there is some means to recover the taxes paid on the dollars paid towards the premium?

Answer 1

To the best of my knowledge there was no change in ACA re the deductability of the insurance premiums. I.e.: they're not deductible, and have never been. ACA introduced marketplace exchanges and limited the insurers in their ability to reduce/decline/limit coverage, but it didn't affect how you can deduct self-paid insurance premiums on your taxes.

If at all, it in fact made things (slightly) worse by raising the bar for deductible medical expenses from 7.5% of your AGI to 10%, but I doubt that would make a significant difference in your case.

Employer-sponsored plans however are pre-tax, meaning while nominally they may cost the same - effectively they're cheaper since you're paying with pre-tax funds, and not after-tax.

I don't believe your wife is correct.