<prompt> Human: Hey guys, Im seriously struggling with health insurance. Im new to the USA moved here for my husband and came from the UK where healthcare is free. So, Ive never had to deal with this...and I am admittedly a bit resentful.I have only just gotten authorisation to work so for 8 months I have had no income. As you can imagine, my finances are wearing thin. I earn around 2,000 a month if Im lucky. My husband on the other hand earns around 5,500 a month plus side jobs.My questions:1 is it worse for me to get joint healthcare as they will look at our earnings as a whole, so we dont qualify for any help and the premium is around 800 a month. This means Id be paying 400 and I really cannot afford that on top of bills. 2 can I get healthcare on my own and get help? Do they still take the household income as opposed to my individual income?3 what if I just said fuck it and didnt get health insurance? Im not sure of the consequences.Any help would be greatly appreciated.Edit: we are both independent contractors Assistant: Short answer: if your employer covers you, compare their cheapest coverage to your husbands cheapest coverage. If neither employer offers coverage, find the cheapest coverage from your states marketplace at healthcare.gov.If you have employer-sponsored coverage, its often cheaper for each spouse to enroll for single-only coverage from their own employer which is usually cheaper than spousal or family coverage. If you dont have employer-sponsored coverage, you can check out the exchangemarketplace for your state and see what options are available to you open enrollment ends December 15, I think. You can comparison-shop the ACA marketplace cost versus the cost of extending your husbands coverage to you.Im not sure what you mean by get healthcare on my own and get help. Do you mean care as in coverageinsurance? Or care as in doctors and needles and pills? You can get insurance coverage from the exchangemarketplace.You can certainly pay for health care out of pocket, directly at a clinic. It will save you money for the year as long as you dont use much and dont need serious medical care. If you have a catastrophic accident or illness, you will not have coverage until you are able to enroll in employer or marketplace coverage, or your joint income drops enough to qualify for charity or Medicaid. However, as an immigrant, you normally have to be lawfully present for 5 years before qualifying for Medicaid coverage; I dont know if your marriage circumvents that requirement. In any case, your husbands income almost certainly disqualifies you from most charity or from Medicaid, because he makes too much.You can decline to get coverage. There is a penalty for not having coverage, if you had the money to afford it. If you file a joint tax return with your husband, and he made 60k this year, then you will owe a penalty for lack of coverage. If you file separate tax returns, there might not be a penalty for you for 2016, but there likely will be for 2017 if you make 24k. There is no penalty if none of the coverage available to you was officially considered affordable.Human: Thank you so much for your reply! We are both independent contractors so insurance through our jobs is not an option to us.  <response>: You should add this to your main post, it clarifies your options considerably. 