Interesting - they give $1700 but not if you don’t take the HSA which is $140 less.
As I see what various costs are healthcare in the US, I hope others can see what a two tier system we have.
Those who have jobs who subsidize their healthcare. For them, it’s affordable.
As @busdriver11 costs point out, that’s how much your company is subsidizing your costs. That’s the cost that your company is paying. For those who have retiree healthcare, it’s an even bigger deal, you are no longer working, get to retire before 65. An amazing benefit
And then there are those who are self employed. They have to pay the entire amount themselves. For a few years, if their income was within a range, they got the benefit of the government helping to pay those huge bills. So many were now able to buy their own healthcare. That benefit is going away.
These topics seem to go in a predictable way. Those who are paying the full freight. And those who don’t. How this system is unsustainable
My husband worked one job for 39 years. He was offered retiree healthcare and so he was able to retire after 39 years. 3 years later, that benefit disappeared. It was too expensive for the company.
That’s the future.
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I think in their policy they didn’t consider how social security and medicare laws affect senior citizens and that more and more senior citizens are working longer into the sunset. I am hoping they will see my point of view and make an adjustment. It is just a fact, medicare and hsa don’t go together by law, at least not without being penalized. I didn’t opt out, I was pretty much opted out.
I haven’t ventured beyond the college threads much, but I came looking for a health insurance post, and here it is, lol.
DH and I are in Georgia, with three kids – 21, 18, 18. We aren’t covered under employers, so we buy insurance through the ACA.
This past year, we paid $1200 a month (with subsidy), but that included crazy high deductibles – I don’t even remember what – but like $8,000 per person, with maybe max family out of pocket cost of $20,000. Or something. Not great insurance, but totally fine for our needs.
Then, two things happened – one, the subsidy went away for 2026. And two, our health insurance provider is no longer going to offer a plan through the ACA for 2026, so we have to pick something else.
Our subsidy this year shaved $400 off our premium per month, so I assumed our premium would go up by that much for next year.
But, no. The absolute cheapest plan I can find that still includes our doctors is $3,300 per month – and that is with even higher deductibles.
If we want to switch to Kaiser Permanente – which, okay, but we’d really rather keep our doctors if we can – then the cheapest is $2,700 per month.
What is even happening right now? There are 15 million+ people buying insurance through the ACA, and surely this is not sustainable for many or most of them.
Our insurance broker mentioned a company called LifeX Research Corp – near as I can tell, it’s a “company” that “hires” employees and pays them like $50 to fill out some surveys and then issues W2s – which then allows them to offer group health plans to said employees. We would have access to a Cigna PPO or PHCS plan through it for a reasonable cost.
I so want this to be legit, but there are warning posts all over Reddit, and it just sounds scammy.
We have until December 15 to pick something, though, and I have no idea what to do. I mean, we are lucky to technically be able to afford it, but is this not insane?
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S works for a corporation headquartered outside DC. United Healthcare stopped working with Johns Hopkins, so they switched to Aetna (not great for those living where S lives). The premiums doubled.
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It’s not. There will be tons people who will either not have healthcare. Will try to find more affordable options like the one you find, that may be legit. May not be either. It’s a crapshoot. Like a Christian health share. It may work. Maybe. If there are too many people who need the insurance to pay out, the health share won’t be able to. What happens then?
It’s going to be an unknown situation the country will find itself in next year.
I just heard from a physician that their payments have decreased 33% since Covid. I’m positive their overhead has not.
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I think people would be surprised by the number of people in rural areas that had no health insurance at all, long before any of these cost increases.
I have an ACA Bronze plan with excellent preventative care, mental health and drug coverage. I do not get a subsidy. 2025 premium is $754. 2026 premium is $830. So, a 9% increase. $6000 deductible with a $9000 max OoP. No referrals required. I don’t have any health conditions so I figure if I develop one, I will switch to a lower deductible policy the following year. For me, the amount I save by having a high-ish deductible plan for a year (since I can switch plans at open enrollment if I develop a health issue) totally justifies the risk, since a low deductible plan would cost me an additional $8400/year.
I cannot figure out why some of you who are also on ACA Bronze plans or other high deductible plans are paying a LOT more than I am.
That what the expanded subsidies did for those without healthcare
They were able to purchase healthcare, maybe for the first time.
Now that time is ending
I know a young person who was self employed. The expanded subsidy afforded them to have healthcare. To treat their cancer which thankfully was slow growing and treatable. They were rolling the dice for 5 years before, hoping for an avenue to treat a tumor they knew they had but couldn’t afford to go to the doctor.
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It may be the state you live in and the pool of covered people
I have an ACA bronze plan. Next year it will be $1250 with an $8500 deductible
I think I will change to the
$900 a month with a $10,600 deductible
It’s also the plans that are offered in your area. More competition, the better your rates
I’m hating this format right now as I can hardly type a response and definitely can’t edit anything!
My plan is the cheapest one in my zip code. I’m 63 years old.
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I don’t disagree, but even with subsidies there were a lot of people without healthcare.
It depends on what plans are offered in your particular state – but what you’re paying isn’t much different than what we will be paying in 2026, it’s just that we’re paying for a family of five instead of for a single person. So our premium will be just slightly less than five times yours.
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Age is a factor as well. I just checked listing age as 40 instead of a senior and the premium shown was $700 a month less for two of us.
In my state (MA) the cheaper bronze plans have very restrictive doctor networks and hospitals.
If you want to keep your doctors and have access to the Boston hospitals, you pay substantially higher premiums.
All of the ACA plans in MA are HMO, there are no PPO plans.
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Presumably the kiddos premiums would only be a fraction of yours though. The plan for which I will be paying $830/next year is only $295 for a 20 year old.
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That’s pretty reasonable. Back in 2007 Colorado_kid was considering a gap year. When I priced Cobra coverage (in those days pretty much my only choice) it was going to be $430 month.
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Hmm, I will try looking it up for each of them separately and see what comes back.
This is true in GA as well – only HMO plans offered through ACA, and I can’t find a single one for 2026 that has both our doctors as well as our kids’ doctors on it. And we’ve seen these same doctors for more than a decade.
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Wow. Here, there are 22 plans available. 11 of them are PPO (NOT HMO) plans. Half. I did not search specific providers but the big Seattle hospitals are in network on my bronze PPO plan.
I did not realize there were such vast regional differences in ACA plans.
oh yes! And they also don’t cross state lines! Huge deal when you live in a small rural city on a state line, where the nearest (and better) health care providers are across the line…
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I just ran the numbers doing every combination of my husband and I together without the kids, each of the kids separately, just the kids combined, etc.
It’s not any cheaper any which way. My husband and I together, if we want to keep our doctors, is $1,952 per month. If we buy the cheapest thing (Kaiser) where we can only go to Kaiser doctors, it’s $1,644.
The kids are about $450 per month individually, and three times that combined. So we’re looking at $3,300 per month for a crappy HMO regardless.
OH, and our oldest goes to college out of state. She doesn’t have coverage there with our current HMO, so we pay $3,500 per year for the mandatory college health insurance in addition. 
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