Family glitch calculator
Your job's health plan gets tested for affordability twice: once on what it costs to cover just you, and once on what it costs to cover your whole family. When the family number fails, your spouse and children can qualify for Marketplace subsidies even though you cannot. Enter three numbers and see which side of the line your household lands on.
Everyone on your tax return, added together, the way the Marketplace counts it. Gross W2 wages, and net income after business expenses if you are self employed. Not sure? Run our MAGI income estimator first.
What comes out of your paycheck for the cheapest plan your employer offers that covers just you. Use their lowest priced qualifying plan, not necessarily the one you picked.
What that same plan costs you per month to cover yourself plus every family member who needs coverage. Your share of the premium, not the employer's share.
Nothing you type here leaves your device. This tool applies the IRS required contribution percentages under the 2022 family affordability final rule. It is educational, not an eligibility determination, and it cannot see wellness incentives, opt out payments, or health reimbursement arrangements that change the cost the IRS actually counts. The Marketplace makes the final call.
The affordability percentage by year
The IRS re indexes this number every year. It is the share of your household income that employer coverage is allowed to cost before the rules stop calling it affordable.
| Plan year | Required contribution percentage | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| 2023 | 9.12% | First year the family glitch fix applied |
| 2024 | 8.39% | Lowest percentage in the history of the rule |
| 2025 | 9.02% | |
| 2026 | 9.96% | Rev. Proc. 2025-25 |
| 2027 | 10.22% | Rev. Proc. 2026-26, first time above 10 percent |
Sources: IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-25 for 2026 and IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-26 for 2027. The two part family test comes from the Treasury and IRS final rule published October 13, 2022. Tool last updated August 31, 2026.
Three things to get from HR
The math is easy. Getting honest numbers out of a benefits department is the hard part, and no law requires them to give you any of it. Ask in writing and keep the reply.
The self-only price
Your payroll cost for the lowest priced plan they offer that meets minimum value, covering only you. Not the plan you are on today. The cheapest qualifying one.
The family price
Your payroll cost for that same plan covering you plus every family member who needs coverage. Employee plus spouse, employee plus children, and full family are usually priced very differently.
Minimum value, in writing
Confirmation that the plan meets the 60 percent minimum value standard. If it does not, the affordability test stops mattering and your whole household may qualify.
HealthCare.gov publishes an Employer Coverage Tool that asks for exactly these numbers. Print it, hand it to HR, and you have your answer on one page.
One household, two answers
Insurance companies speak insurance. We translate. Here is the whole story in a paragraph. For the first nine years of the Marketplace, the government asked one question about your job's health plan: can this worker afford to cover themselves? If the answer was yes, everyone in the household was cut off from premium tax credits, even if adding a spouse and two children cost eight times as much. That was the family glitch, and it left millions of people paying full price for coverage the rules had already declared affordable.
Since the 2023 plan year, the government asks two questions instead. Can this worker afford to cover themselves? And separately, can they afford to cover their family? A yes to the first and a no to the second is now a legitimate and very common answer. It means the worker stays on the employer plan while their family shops the Marketplace with a subsidy.
That split is not automatically a win. Moving your family to the Marketplace means giving up whatever your employer was contributing toward their premium, and you lose the pre tax payroll treatment that quietly discounted every dollar of it. You end up with two deductibles, two out of pocket maximums, and two provider networks that may not include the same pediatrician. If your family also qualifies for cost sharing reductions, they have to be on a Silver plan to use them, which narrows the choice again. This calculator tells you whether the door is open. Whether walking through it saves your household money is a different question, and it is the one we answer for clients at no cost.
Related reading: what income counts for ACA subsidies, whether subsidies have to be paid back, and if you are outside Open Enrollment, the qualifying event finder.
Family glitch questions
What was the family glitch?
From 2014 through 2022, the Marketplace decided whether your job's health plan was affordable by looking only at what it cost to cover you by yourself. If that self-only cost cleared the threshold, your whole family was cut off from premium tax credits, even when adding a spouse and children tripled the price. That was the family glitch. A federal rule finalized in October 2022 fixed it starting with the 2023 plan year.
How is affordability tested now?
Twice, separately. Your employer's lowest cost self-only plan is measured against your household income to decide whether you can get a subsidy. Then the cost to cover you plus everyone in your family is measured against that same household income to decide whether your family members can. Because the family number is almost always far larger, it is common for the employee to be locked out while the spouse and children qualify.
Does my whole family have to leave the employer plan?
Only the people who move to the Marketplace. This is the part most people miss: the household can split. You stay on the employer plan because your self-only cost passed the affordability test, and your spouse and children enroll in a Marketplace plan with a subsidy. That means two plans, two deductibles, two out of pocket maximums, and two provider networks. Sometimes the math is a clear win and sometimes it is not, which is exactly the conversation to have before you sign anything.
What if I keep my family on the employer plan anyway?
Then no subsidy, full stop. Anyone actually enrolled in employer coverage is ineligible for a premium tax credit no matter what the affordability math says. The credit is only available to family members who decline the offer. Your employer also has to allow a mid year drop for this to work outside their own open enrollment, and not every plan does.
Which numbers do I ask my employer for?
Three: your cost for the lowest priced self-only plan that meets minimum value, your cost for that same plan covering you and all of your family members, and written confirmation that the plan meets the 60 percent minimum value standard. HealthCare.gov publishes an Employer Coverage Tool that asks for exactly these. No law requires an employer to hand the information over, so ask HR in writing and keep the reply.
Do wellness discounts or tobacco surcharges change the number?
Yes, and this trips people up. The cost used in the test assumes you earn every wellness incentive except the tobacco one, and it assumes you do pay the tobacco surcharge if it applies to you. So use the price after wellness discounts, and add the tobacco surcharge if you use tobacco. If you are not sure which number HR gave you, send it to us and we will read it with you.
Is this tool a guarantee that we qualify?
No. It applies the published IRS thresholds to the numbers you type, which is the same test the Marketplace applies. It cannot see your tax return, your employer's plan documents, or the health reimbursement arrangements and opt out payments that can change the cost the IRS actually counts. Treat the result as a strong signal worth verifying, then let a licensed agent confirm it before you change anyone's coverage.
The families this rule was written for rarely know it changed
Kate sees it every season: a household paying more than a thousand dollars a month for family coverage because someone told them years ago that a job offer disqualifies them. The rule changed in 2023. Run your numbers, then bring them to a real conversation.
Got a result you did not expect?
Send us your three numbers and we will verify them against your actual plan documents, then price the Marketplace side so you can compare like for like. Free, no pressure, usually the same day.
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