Despite Inflation, Health Insurance Costs Will Stay Roughly Flat In 2022

A new ValuePenguin.com analysis has found that in 2022, Americans will spend an average of $541 per month, or $6,492 per year on health insurance if they get an Affordable Care Act (ACA) plan via state or federal health exchanges.

Health Insurance costs have remained mostly steady - with just a 0.67% ($48/year) increase in average premiums from 2021, but analysts found significant variations across states, and health insurance plan type:

West Virginia, South Dakota, Wyoming, Vermont and Louisiana residents will pay the highest health insurance premiums in 2022 - premiums here are 53.72%, 50.02%, 41.32%, 40.58% and 34.67% above the national average. Georgia, New Hampshire, Maryland, Minnesota and Colorado residents will pay the lowest health insurance premiums in 2022 - premiums here are 42.84%, 33.41%, 32.48%, 28.05% and 24.34% below the national average.

South Dakota, West Virginia, New Mexico, Arizona and Texas will experience the biggest jump in health insurance costs in 2022 - marketplace plans here are 23.07%, 19.74%, 17.36%, 13.81% and 12.97% more expensive in 2022 when compared to 2021.Georgia, South Carolina and Nebraska will see health insurance costs decrease the most in 2022 - marketplace plans here are 41.37%, 16.15%, and 11.27% cheaper in 2022 when compared to 2021.

Platinum tier health insurance plans saw the biggest drop in premiums for 2022, compared to other types of plans, falling 4.35%. Expanded Bronze and Bronze tier health plans saw the sharpest increase in premiums, rising 3.21% and 2.47% in 2022.

According to ValuePenguin Health Insurance expert Robin Townsend, "Nationally, the cost of full-price Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans rose by less than 1% for 2022. For states with larger rate increases, insurers cite an overall jump in health care costs, including prescription drug prices, as drivers." She adds, "Other factors mentioned by insurers include the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, with an increase in vaccine administration and the impact of the delta variant prompting higher rates in 2022."

ValuePenguin analysts looked at the thousands of Health Insurance plans available from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services. Using the rates and premiums for each plan, average costs per state were calculated from silver plans for 40-year-olds. Plans and providers for which county-level data was included in the CMS' Crosswalk file were used in this analysis - those excluded from this dataset may not appear.

To find out how much health insurance will cost in your state in 2022, visit: https://www.valuepenguin.com/average-cost-of-health-insurance

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