Be wary of those ACA health plans that don’t charge a monthly premium
Every county in
But these plans come with massive deductibles and hefty out-of-pocket costs that could require an individual to spend up to
By shopping around, however, a low-income 25-year-old in
The same 25-year-old can also find a
"Always consider your total cost of care," advised
More than 500,000 people in
Because many ACA users have gone years without health insurance and lack familiarity with the subject, they could mistakenly conclude that their monthly premium payment is the sole cost of their health insurance.
Health insurance almost always requires the payment of an annual deductible before your health care expenses are covered by insurance. The customer's share of medical bills are called out-of-pocket costs and include the deductible, co-insurance and co-payments.
The only things you get for free under the ACA is preventive coverage: annual checkups, vaccinations, and screenings for high blood pressure, diabetes and other conditions.
The "free," or zero-premium, policies that appear on the healthcare.gov computer screen might jump out at shoppers as a giveaway too good to pass up. But in most such plans, the steep out-of-pocket cost would eat up nearly half the household income of about
In years past, people at the lower end of the income scale who are eligible for ACA subsidies could usually find health coverage that was heavily discounted, in some cases down to a zero monthly premium payment. But this year there will be more people qualifying for zero-premium plans because of a
Trump's October executive order eliminated a subsidy called the "cost sharing reduction" that the federal government paid to health insurers for discounting out-of-pocket costs for low-income customers. This subsidy is available to individuals with household incomes from
The elimination of the cost sharing reduction subsidy left insurers on the hook for millions of dollars of discounts they are required to provide to low-income customers under the ACA. So to offset the loss they raised their premiums for 2018. By raising premiums, the insurers triggered higher premium subsidies from the federal government for ACA customers. Because the premium subsidies are paid on a sliding scale based on household income, lower income customers qualify for larger subsidies.
And because the premium subsidies are markedly higher for 2018, they are erasing premiums down to zero on a number of policies for the lowest-income ACA customers.
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Have you signed up for the ACA? Here's why you shouldn't wait and what you need to know.
Have you signed up for the ACA? Here's why you shouldn't wait and what you need to know.
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