# When do you lose Health Insurance Coverage after Average Hours Drop?



## Asuras (Apr 29, 2020)

My average hours has finally dropped under 29.5 (28.75 on this weeks paycheck). When do you lose Health Insurance Coverage after your Average Hours Drop? Do you lose it right away or have 1-2 weeks?


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## Hardlinesmaster (Apr 29, 2020)

Asuras said:


> My average hours has finally dropped under 29.5 (28.75 on this weeks paycheck). When do you lose Health Insurance Coverage after your Average Hours Drop? Do you lose it right away or have 1-2 weeks?


Use vacation time to push it back up.


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## JAShands (Apr 29, 2020)

You will not lose coverage for the year you have it. Do what you can to grab a few more hours each week to bump your hours back up. I might have a glamorous position in HR but I do not write my own schedule nor do I typically get more than 22 hours/week in HR, but I do what I have to do I can keep my insurance. If it means I’m sorting softlines truck at 6am on a Saturday or getting carts at close on a Sunday then that’s what I do. When it’s a choice between have insurance on my kids and what do I want to do the choice is already made.


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## BoxCutter (Apr 29, 2020)

If possible, and you are only missing it by a few hours each week, use vacation time to get it to, and stay at, 30 hours. You can go back a few weeks and add vacation time to weeks you didn't work 30 hours.


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## NightHuntress (Apr 29, 2020)

Could you imagine....this TM’s average dropped so we take away insurance. 3 weeks later, average back up we can reinstate insurance. What a nightmare! As others said, use vacation or pick up hours to keep your average up. What matters most is what you are sitting at when it’s time to re-enroll in insurance each year. There are many TM’s that straddle that fine qualification line


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## jackandcat (Apr 29, 2020)

JAShands said:


> You will not lose coverage for the year you have it


  This was my understanding as well.

When the ACA "obamacare" came into effect in 2014, Target dropped health benefits for <30 hours/wk TMs.  The theory was that ACA Medicaid expansion would cover lower-income workers like part-time TMs and be cheaper for the TMs than the Target benefits.  

Some states implemented the ACA Medicaid expansion, others did not.  Also, and for married couples working P/T jobs they frequently earned too much money to qualify for state ACA Medicaid (133% of the state's official poverty level). Of course, now we face the unknown future of the ACA and Medicaid expansion.....


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## StarChicknz (May 5, 2020)

Jashands is right, you will not loose coverage this year.  You'll keep it til March 31 2021.  

What happens is on January 1 they run A report for every tms average hours.  Those over 29.5 are eligible for medical insurance.  Those 29.49 or less are not.  Open enrollment starts mid February based on that jan 1 report.  Those that sign up in February start their insurance on april 1.  
Anyone that had insurance in the prior year keeps it until march 31.  If their average hours stayed above the 29.5 then they keep coverage with the new enrollment options. 
If their hours dropped Then they can either sign up for Obamacare insurance through marketplace, sign up for cobra (super pricey, about 2/3 more then you regular medical payment)  or check into private insurance elsewhere or Medicare/Medicaid.  Every one of these would be filed for a life change loss of insurance option even if their enrollment periods have dropped. 

Unfortunately weve had a LOT of tms bounce around on this one so I feel like I've talked to hroc about this specific event at least 1000 times lol. 

Everyone else's advice is solid.   Pick up shifts & use vacation pay to keep your hours up above the 29.5.  They calculate it on your average hours over the past 12 months so keep it as high as you can every week to bring it back up.


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