Helping Partner with Unemployment [Disc, Adv]

[reboundstudent]

Today's letter seems like a good opportunity to ask you lovely folks for advice on a similar topic I'm struggling with. I and my partner have an agreement that I not talk about our relationship too much on here, so I'd like to make this post focus exclusively on me and ways I can help. In short, ways that I can help him (resources, ideas) through a trying time.

As part of his master's degree, the program that my boyfriend is in requires that he do a local internship. Some of them are minimally paid, but as you can imagine, those are very hard to come by. The program offers pretty much no help in connecting students with programs; they have to find them themselves. You either do 20 hours a week for 2 semesters, or 40 hours a week for 1 semester. My boyfriend has found an internship that he is very excited about, but due to hours, it means quitting his job.

To prepare for this, he's been storing up money, and has a decent nest egg. Between savings and loans, he can budget his way through a year-long internship with minimal assistance from me. The problem is his budget is very tight. Health insurance, which includes any kind of therapy, goes straight out the window.

I've suggested a sliding scale fee clinic, but unfortunately, the job he's had previous to the internship puts him in too high of an annual income bracket to receive any kind of services. I'm also powerless to help, as I can't even afford my own therapy.* He's considered taking a part-time job so he can have some extra budget room for insurance or emergencies, but his internship is going to be very, very emotionally draining and probably time-intensive.

So my question is, does anyone know of any good resources for situations like this? I think he can't unemployment benefits; is there some way to get around his annual income being too high, especially if he's going to be doing this internship for 6-12 months? Any suggestions for how I can help him out, other than financially? Any suggestions or advice from similar situations would be very welcome!! Thank you!


*Long story short, I have health insurance through my employer, but I pay everything beneath the deductible straight out of pocket. I'm in too high of an income bracket for sliding scale fees, and even if I did two therapy sessions a month at full price (more than I can afford, anyway) I still wouldn't hit my deductible.

[Wondering]

Health insurance, which includes any kind of therapy, goes straight out the window.

Just a practical financial comment about this. You have to pay a fee/tax on your income taxes now if you haven't had health insurance for the entire calendar year. You may have done this already, but just in case you haven't, don't forget to figure that tax into the cost of not having it!

[reboot]

Is his savings enough to gut out one semester of no income? It might be wise to get the pain over as fast as possible and get back into a job is possible point sooner rather than later.

Also, he can get insurance through the marketplace if he does not already have it. He might get subsidies because his estimated income for the year will be lower due to an employment gap of 3 ish months and no guarantee of work after. The marketplace does not look at current income, but projected income.

[reboundstudent]

Is his savings enough to gut out one semester of no income? It might be wise to get the pain over as fast as possible and get back into a job is possible point sooner rather than later.

Unfortunately it all depends on the internship; he can only work 40 hours if they give him 40 hours, and not all of them will.

Also, he can get insurance through the marketplace if he does not already have it. He might get subsidies because his estimated income for the year will be lower due to an employment gap of 3 ish months and no guarantee of work after. The marketplace does not look at current income, but projected income.

Interesting. I admit I don't totally understand how marketplace health insurance works. Do you know who a good person might be that he could talk to about all this? Thanks!

[Caffeinated]

That sounds rough. It seems like it's the kind of problem that other people doing his program will have faced before, so maybe that's the place to get some good [local] ideas and recommendations? If the program itself says they don't have anything for you, maybe he could talk to previous graduates about what they did to get through.

[celette482]

Most towns of any size have Obamacare reps. If your state took the money, they probably have some techs too. You can sign up past the deadline if you have a change in income/job situation.

[reboot]

Most towns of any size have Obamacare reps. If your state took the money, they probably have some techs too. You can sign up past the deadline if you have a change in income/job situation.

Yep. There are navigators often with the state or city health department who will walk people through this. First step, though, is going on the website. I find it rather intuitive now (initially it was hellish)

[Wondering]

Here's the main site, which links to the state sites for states that have their own healthcare plans, like yours does.

https://www.healthcare.gov/marketplace-in-your-state/

[PintsizeBro]

Surely a sliding scale clinic won't be ruled out indefinitely. Right now he makes too much to be seen there, but once he's unemployed he has no income. But yes, change in income also affects the price of health insurance.

[Kiskadee]

Interesting. I admit I don't totally understand how marketplace health insurance works. Do you know who a good person might be that he could talk to about all this? Thanks!

He could also check with his university - the one that I am had people counseling the students on how to sign up for marketplace health insurance and walking us through the process when necessary. Admittedly that was when it first came out, so this might not still be a thing, but it's worth a try!

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