Getting The Most Coverage For Your Money With Obamacare

How can you make the most of your health insurance options available through the Affordable Care Act? Here are some suggestions.

If you have a relatively low income, and you are in relatively good health, look for plans that have $0 monthly premiums.

Bronze plans, which have high deductibles and copays, are more likely to have premiums that are completely subsidized. It is necessary to enter the information for your tax credits on the healthcare.gov site (if you received a subsidy for 2014, you will in most cases continue to receive the same subsidy in 2015), but you may not have to pay any premium at all. If you know you are going to have medical expenses, however, do the math. You may be able to find a policy that you have to pay for that still leaves you will less out of pocket expense than the lowest cost coverage.

If you have a relatively high income, and you are in poor health, be careful about plans that limit your choices among doctors and hospitals.

HMO plans are less expensive than PPO plans, but they also offer fewer choices. In some states, you are limited to doctors and hospitals that are "in-network," who have contracted with the insurance company to provide services at a fixed fee. You do not have any coverage at all for services you get "out of network." In other states, you can get services out of network, but your insurance company will only pay the provider what they pay in-network. You can get stuck with a bill for the difference. Your policy may make an exception for emergency care, but if you are, say, in an out-of-network hospital in a coma after an accident, you can get stuck with a monumental bill that you could do nothing about. If you know you are going to the hospital, it's usually better, if you can find a way to afford it, for you to sign up for a PPO plan.

Silver plans sometimes come with assistance for paying your deductibles.

Individuals and families whose income falls under certain limits ($29,175 for individuals, $59,625 for a family of 4) can get both tax credits for paying their premiums and help with their deductibles. The federal assistance with the deductible is figured into the terms of the plan, so what you will see is instead of a $5,000 or $10,000 annual deductible, perhaps a $500 or even $0 deductible for the year. You can save up to $6,000 a year on your medical expenses this way, and you will never have to pay this money back. However, reduction in deductibles is only available with Silver plans, not Bronze, Gold, or Platinum.

See Also: Race, Income, And Gender In American Healthcare

It is still possible to get health insurance outside of the government-run exchanges, although help with premiums and deductibles is only available for Obamacare. All health insurance policies now have to offer an established minimum coverage, and your preexisting conditions are not a barrier to getting a policy, but the expense of these policies usually is considerably higher.