Was advised to cross post this here.
This one is a little confusing but I’m looking for advice on what to do in this situation.
I am an adult learner back in school, working on my bachelors online and a separate certificate program in a trade. I left a part time job earlier this year to pursue a really great (supposedly) job opportunity in the trade I’m studying. I left my health insurance at the previous job and that would have been a qualifying event for ACA coverage, but I figured I’d just avoid the hassle and wait out the 30 day probationary period at the new job to get their insurance, which has a much lower deductible than ACA options. In hindsight, kind of dumb of me to do, and the higher deductibles in the marketplace aren’t really a financial worry for me.
Took the new job, first 2.5 weeks were great, I was getting experience, etc. Then they transferred me to a different department under the guise of cross-training but it’s not at all what I want to be doing…and I’m watching others do the job I was hired for. I asked when I would be switched back and they said not any time soon as I am the low man on the totem pole.
The new job duties and the hours they are asking from me are not working out with school. I can’t keep up, I don’t like it, and I’m not liking the ethics I’ve seen among my supervisors in the workplace. It’s a factory setting and production is placed over safety.
My plan is to ask to scale back hours initially while I look for a different job. They have been understanding of my school schedule thus far so I think it will be possible. However, the decrease in hours will not give me health insurance coverage through them.
My plan is to work one more week of the higher amount of hours and I will start being covered during this week. Then, I will ask to switch.
My question is: will such a short time of being covered then switching to not being covered act as a qualifying event for ACA coverage? Or do you have to be covered for a certain amount of time before losing coverage?
Essentially, I need health insurance just in case anything happens, price doesn’t matter. I am a very healthy person but I run the risk of something major happening.
Edited to add: I have passed the 60 day qualifying event period from the previous job, so that’s out of the picture. I had a break in between jobs.