<prompt> Human: I honestly have never thought about health insurance before this week. I went straight from my parents insurance to my employers insurance when I had my first son. And then I added my second son earlier this year once he was born, and now I need to add my wife this month because she is turning 26.My employer pays 100 for my health insurance at the lowest package, and then 30 of the dependent premium. I was paying about 280month for the last half of this year since I added my second son. And now it is jumping up to 495month with the addition of my wife. We are not planning on having a baby next year and all of us are in good health I just knocked, thank you, so we will most likely keep the basic plan. Here is a list of our deductibles and copays for reference.My wife suggested that maybe she and our kids should get a plan through the Covered CA. I thought this was a good idea but I currently cant shop options because that part of the Covered CA website is down right now. But I was curious if this would affect me claiming her as a dependent when I file for taxes next year. I am under the impression I will not be able to since she will be a primary on the insurance and our kids will be her dependents on the plan, but I would be footing that insurance bill. I make roughly 65K-75K annually and she has almost no income through her job, but she is technically self-employed and currently working.I am hoping someone much more versed in all of this can help advise me if we should switch her and the kids off my employers plan simply if it will be cheaper per month for us or if there will be unforeseen disadvantages I am not realizing now.If you need further details to help me understand what I should do, please let me know and Ill happily provide what I can. Thanks in advance!  <response>: Your spouse isnt your dependent. You guys should be filing your taxes as married filing jointly unless theres something special going on that makes you want to file separately. If you file as married, you get to use both standard deduction and exemptions, which is the benefit of doing so. In either case, buying health insurance separately doesnt change dependency status. Your wifehusband is never, ever your dependent. 