I've had employer-provided insurance for years, so I don't know much about the marketplace options. A friend of mine moved back to her hometown in Illinois after living for many years in Virginia, where she worked as an LPN and had employed-provided healthcare.

She moved back here (i.e., Illinois) to help care for her elderly parents who need full-time care. She's going to have to sign up at getcoveredillinois.gov, and I've volunteered to help her. Not that I know anything ;-) Before she and I get started, I have some questions. Here's the situation:

1. She is 56 years old.
2. Because she is taking care of her parents full-time, she is not able to work.
3. Her parents are providing her room and board but not paying her.
4. Her parents are comfortably well off.
5. She doesn't have many assets. She sold her house and used most of the proceeds to pay off debts. I'm sure she has some cash left over, but I don't know how much (I will get that info from her at some point).
6. She worked full-time until she moved to Illinois a couple of months ago, i.e., she did have a steady income but not any longer.

My question is: when she goes online to start the process, when it asks what the household income is, does she have to count her parents' income and assets? If so, that's probably gonna put her in the "you have to pay the full price of a policy, no subsidy" category.

Related to that, when they ask how many household members, does she answer 1 (just herself) or 3 (she and her parents)?

Finally, how will the income from her job affect all this? She worked full-time for 8 months before giving up her job to take care of her folks. She has zero income now and that will be the case for the foreseeable future. As I said, all she has is whatever is left from the sale of her house after she paid her debts (credit card bills, etc.)

Sorry this is so long, but any guidance is sincerely appreciated!

Edit: Gotta run off to a baby shower soon, so if anyone responds and I don't say thank you right away, that's why. I'll check back later today.