A health insurance premium is the amount – typically billed monthly – that policyholders pay for health coverage. Policyholders must pay their premiums each month regardless of whether they visit a doctor or use any other healthcare service.| healthinsurance.org
If you have a health plan in the individual market, on-exchange or off-exchange, you can probably just let it renew for the coming year without doing anything during open enrollment. But this is generally not in your best interest.| healthinsurance.org
Open enrollment for 2025 ACA (Affordable Care Act)-compliant health insurance is just around the corner. Let’s take a look at the various changes that consumers should be aware of this fall.| healthinsurance.org
The federal poverty level (FPL) - also referred to as the federal poverty guidelines – is used to determine eligibility for Medicaid and CHIP, and for premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions in the health insurance marketplace.| healthinsurance.org
If your employer-sponsored insurance becomes unaffordable or stops providing minimum value, the change may make you eligible for a special enrollment period.| healthinsurance.org
If you're like the vast majority of consumers, you may be hearing about CSRs for the first time and wondering why these subsidies are so important, and whether they actually affect your own coverage. Here's what you need to know:| healthinsurance.org
An off-exchange plan is a health insurance policy that is purchased directly from an insurance company or through an agent or broker, outside of the official ACA-created health insurance exchange.| healthinsurance.org
Immigrants can enroll in ACA-compliant individual health insurance just like any other lawfully present U.S. resident. Lawfully present immigrants are eligible for premium subsidies.| healthinsurance.org
According to Kaiser Family Foundation data, there are about 1.9 million people in the coverage gap across nine states (this does not include North Carolina, as Medicaid expansion will take effect there in late 2023). They aren't eligible for Medicaid, nor are they eligible for premium subsidies in the exchange.| healthinsurance.org
While the Affordable Care Act's premium subsidies help pay the cost of the health insurance itself, cost-sharing subsidies help to reduce out-of-pocket spending for eligible enrollees when they select Silver plans. The Trump administration eliminated federal funding for cost-sharing reductions, but the benefits are still available to eligible enrollees. And because the cost of cost-sharing reductions has been added to premiums, premium subsidies are much larger than they were prior to 2018.| healthinsurance.org
When it comes to selecting a health insurance plan, the premium is the most important factor for many shoppers – especially those who are currently healthy. But price shouldn't be the only factor upon which you base your selection, even if your primary concern is financial.| healthinsurance.org
Under the Affordable Care Act, eligibility for Medicaid, premium subsidies, and cost-sharing reductions is based on modified adjusted gross income (MAGI). But the calculation for that is specific to the ACA – it's not the same as the MAGI that's used for other tax purposes| healthinsurance.org
From 2015 through 2021, the IRS did make an annual change — usually quite small — to the percentage of income that you have to pay for self-purchased (individual/family) health coverage. But there’s a lot more to it than just the percentage of income that the IRS says you have to pay for the benchmark plan.| healthinsurance.org
More than 14 years after passage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), I still encounter folks who are waiting longer than necessary to retire. Many of them are convinced retirement is out of reach financially until they hit Medicare eligibility at age 65. Given the prohibitive cost of private health insurance, these would-be retirees continue...| Can I Retire Yet?
Learn how the Affordable Care Act (Obamacare) improved health coverage and made it more affordable through income-based subsidies.| healthinsurance.org