What You Need to Know About Purchasing Health Insurance in the Marketplace: 4 Steps for Success

If your employer doesn’t offer healthcare plans, or you aren’t eligible for one, the Healthcare Marketplace is your next step. When faced with choosing the right plan, the choices may seem overwhelming.

Here are 4 steps for success when purchasing your health insurance. From using Open Enrollment to your advantage to determining your budget to keeping your network in mind to determining any additional products, we’ve got you covered as you assess your new plan.

1.  Use Open Enrollment to review (and reconsider) your choices.

Take the time during Open Enrollment to review your options. The Marketplace allows you to compare different plan in order to see which choice best fits your needs.

Similarly, even if your plan is available for renewal, take the time to review whether it continues to be the best option. Coverage changes year-to-year, so may find a better deal (or even better coverage) from one year to the next.

While Open Enrollment has ended for 2018, you may still be eligible due to certain life events.

2. Determine your budget.

When it comes to choosing the right health insurance plan for you and your family, budget is certainly one the first factors that comes to mind.

However, it isn’t simply your monthly premium that you’ll need to keep in mind; remember that copays and deductibles make a big difference to your bottom line. So it is important to get a sense of how often you’ll need to use your insurance: do you have a small child that often needs to go to the doctor? Do you find yourself often getting proactive healthcare? And so on.

In addition, Health Savings Accounts can also help positively affect your decision.

What’s more: you may qualify for a subsidy (depending on your income) or Medicaid (depending on your age), which will likely decrease your monthly premium.

This Healthcare Insurance Marketplace Calculator is a helpful tool to determine how much you should pay, along with alert you if you are eligible for financial help.

3. Remember your network.

When shopping (or re-shopping) for your health insurance policy, consider your existing healthcare providers along with premium and deductible costs.

Remember that not every plan will cover your network, and out-of-network providers cost more (sometimes full price) than in-network providers. Choosing a plan that is better for your wallet may also mean more work in the long-term by finding new providers.

4. Do your homework for additional plans.

Unfortunately, not all healthcare policies are created equal. Many plans in the marketplace, for example, do not include dental or vision coverage. A Health Savings Account, which we mentioned earlier, is also a helpful option in some cases.

Determine which additional plans you need to purchase (if any) as part of your insurance research process. Again, decide what is the most worthwhile to you and your family based on your needs: purchase additional plans or pay out of pocket for supplemental health insurance plans.

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Choosing your health insurance plan from the Marketplace doesn’t need to be overwhelming. Spend the time deciding where your healthcare priorities lie in order to choose the plan(s) that make the most sense for you and your family.

Ready to learn about purchasing your plan in the Marketplace? Contact us at get-benefits today to learn more.