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
Reinsurance is essentially insurance for insurance companies. Just like individuals count on their insurance company to cover a portion of their medical bills if and when they have a claim, reinsurance programs pay a portion of the insurer's bills when enrollees have high-cost claims.| healthinsurance.org
A proposed federal rule issued this week would, if finalized, bring wide-ranging changes for the Affordable Care Act’s health insurance Marketplace, including a shorter open enrollment period in all states.| healthinsurance.org
Obamacare's annual open enrollment runs until January 15 in most states. Here's why you might want to enroll by December 15 anyway.| healthinsurance.org
In addition to the Platinum, Gold, Silver and Bronze individual health insurance plans, the ACA allows catastrophic plans for people under age 30, or for those 30 and older who qualify for a hardship exemption from having to maintain health insurance coverage or pay a penalty. But subsidies cannot be used to purchase these plans, so enrollment is very low.| healthinsurance.org
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has finalized a special enrollment period in states that use HealthCare.gov, granting year-round enrollment in ACA-compliant health insurance if an applicant’s household income does not exceed 150% of the federal poverty level and if the applicant is eligible for a premium tax credit.| healthinsurance.org
Under the Affordable Care Act, individual and small-group health plans that are not grandfathered must cover items and services in 10 health benefit categories.| 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
Our ACA health insurance subsidy calculator estimates your premium subsidy based on your income, age and household size.| healthinsurance.org
See if you're eligible for the Affordable Care Act's premium tax credits (premium subsidies), how subsidies are calculated, and why they are more robust in 2023.| 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
All plans (whether Bronze, Silver, Gold or Platinum) must cover the same essential benefits, including free preventive care; they all provide comprehensive coverage. But plans with the lowest premiums (Bronze, and to a lesser extent, Silver) require you to pay a larger share of your health costs. This means that your co-pays and deductibles will be higher, and your maximum out-of-pocket will generally be higher as well.| healthinsurance.org