Get an Estimate of Your Health Insurance Costs Even If You Don’t Buy Coverage
It’s that time of year again. No, not football season on a curled up couch (although that is also the case). I’m talking about open enrollment, the only time per year that you can get or change your health coverage under the Affordable Care Act without a related life event.
If you have insurance through your employer, it may not have occurred to you to know how much it would cost to buy insurance for your family. But if you think your employment status may change soon, or you work in an unstable industry (for example, I don’t know, maybe in the media), estimating your costs can help you prepare your finances for the outreach change.
According to eHealthInsurance, the average premium for individual insurance was $ 440 per month, while the premium for a family averaged $ 1,168 per month in 2017. So you will definitely want to be prepared for the fact that you have to pay for your own.
You also don’t need to go through the entire process of listing your information on the public health insurance marketplace HealthCare.gov to know how much insurance might cost you.
There are two ways to get an idea of your potential costs.
How to view complete health plans
First, you can view the full cost of various health insurance plans. To see prices for a 35-year-old, go to this page , enter your zip code and click continue.
On the next page, scroll down and click View Full Priced Plans.
You will be able to see the estimated monthly premium, deductible, and cash cap for health and dental plans in your state.
Find out if you are eligible for a health insurance subsidy
Want to get a more personalized estimate without going through the entire registration process?
If you are already on the plans page, you can add your personal information to get a more accurate estimate.
Or you can start over : enter your zip code and confirm your location; then enter information about your current insurance (do you have one?), family members (age and dependent status), and household income.
The tool will show you if your family may be eligible for the subsidy, which is essentially a discount. From there, you will be able to view the plans. The results will show the original plan price and subtract any savings that you can get from your income.
These estimates are optional, and if you apply for health insurance through the exchange, you may be required to pay a different amount. But you can at least define a baseline of what you can expect from the process.