It is interesting that the subsidies are based on your Modified Adjusted Gross Income (MAGI). A nice example of tax code naming conventions: it is both Modified and Adjusted! One of the items you deduct from your income to get your MAGI is self employed insurance premiums.
I am curious how this will work in practice for the self employed...it seems a bit recursive. My premiums paid will be influenced by how big of a subsidy I get, and the subsidy calculation depends on MAGI which is influenced by the total of my health insurance premium payments.
Is there a class of the donut hole problem where you forecast that you will pay enough in premiums to get your MAGI down to qualify for a subsidy, but that subsidy reduces your actual paid premiums and now you no longer have a MAGI low enough to get the subsidy? Maybe I need to spreadsheet this and it isn't such a trap, or maybe the MAGI deduction is based on the gross premium with the subsidy being a separate credit. Also bear in mind that the whole thing gets trued up when you file your 2014 taxes with your actual (rather than projected) MAGI.
I am curious how this will work in practice for the self employed...it seems a bit recursive. My premiums paid will be influenced by how big of a subsidy I get, and the subsidy calculation depends on MAGI which is influenced by the total of my health insurance premium payments.
Is there a class of the donut hole problem where you forecast that you will pay enough in premiums to get your MAGI down to qualify for a subsidy, but that subsidy reduces your actual paid premiums and now you no longer have a MAGI low enough to get the subsidy? Maybe I need to spreadsheet this and it isn't such a trap, or maybe the MAGI deduction is based on the gross premium with the subsidy being a separate credit. Also bear in mind that the whole thing gets trued up when you file your 2014 taxes with your actual (rather than projected) MAGI.