Millennial Individual Health Insurance Alternative

If you are healthy and without access to Employer Coverage, weigh your options before purchasing individual health insurance.

Example:

30 years of age
Female
Income $55,000 annually
Non Smoker
Columbus, Ohio Zip Code

Cost of ACA Compliant Gold Health Policy: $322/month or $3,864/annually.  That's a new BMW 3 series.

She could reduce coverage to a Bronze level plan for $222/month,  a true catastrophic policy that covers nothing but risk to bills larger than $6,000.  Preventive care, included.

How to avoid these costs? Penalties, Short Term Insurance, Discounts.

$77.25/month Penalties
$117/month Short Term Insruance
$20/month Telehealth, Dental, Vision, Prescription, Chrio Discounts

Considering the same Female above, for similar  Gold level benefits, her monthly premium is reduced to $214/month. An annual savings of $1,296 by taking the penalty & covering herself with Short Term Insurance & Discounts.

The downside to Short Term Health Insurance - *Pre-existing conditions are NOT covered, Policy maximum $1million.  

-Costs pulled from live carrier quoting tools.
-Penalty estimates pulled from http://taxpolicycenter.org/taxfacts/acacalculator.cfm