It’s Time to Figure Out How Much Health Insurance Will Cost Next Year

With Graham-Cassidy dead—or, as Politico puts it, “the fourth Obamacare repeal bill failure since the summer began”—it’s time to start looking at next year’s Affordable Care Act options.

Remember: Open Enrollment is shorter than usual this year. It runs from November 1 through December 15, but Healthcare.gov will be shut down on all but one Sunday, so… try to do your enrollment on Saturday instead. Or any other day.

My insurer already has plan information available, so let’s see what’s in store for me next year:

In 2017, I had a Bronze plan that cost $293.08 in monthly premiums and came with a $4,500 medical deductible, a $1,500 pharmacy deductible, and a $7,350 out-of-pocket maximum cost.

Next year, the same Bronze plan will keep the $7,530 OOP maximum cost, I’ll have a single $6,350 deductible, and my monthly premiums will jump to $395.94.

WOW.

I’ve been tracking my ACA cost increases on The Billfold since 2015, and they’ve gone up every year, but they’ve never gone up this much.

I will pay over a hundred dollars more every month in premiums.

$4,751.28 over the course of the year.

That’s… around 7 percent of my pre-tax income and over 9 percent of my post-tax income.

Is anyone else able to see how much ACA health insurance will cost them in 2018? (I found out on my insurer’s website when I went to pay my monthly bill.) Are you also going to be paying $100 more every month?

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