Obamacare Threatens to Hit Many Families’ Pocketbooks

Because married couples are treated as one taxable unit, their combined income puts them at a disadvantage to unmarried couples applying for health-insurance subsidies. A number of reports using the Kaiser Family Foundation’s “Health Reform Subsidy Calculator” show that unmarried couples could end up saving thousands of dollars over their married counterparts.
According to an analysis by Hans Bader, a senior attorney for the Competitive Enterprise Institute, a 40-year-old couple with children, where the husband makes $70,000 per year full time and his wife makes $23,000 per year, could save $7,200 by getting a legal divorce but continuing to live together — a cost-saving option not available for faithful Catholics and others who wish to be married.

Similarly, Bader notes that a 60-year-old couple with no children at home and making $62,041 a year could save $11,000 per year by getting a divorce.