Four things decide what health coverage really costs you, and only one of them is the monthly price. Tell us your ZIP code and a licensed agent will price your actual options — free, with no obligation.
Health Enrollment Center is operated by Sprinter Insurance Agency LLC, a licensed insurance agency. We are not HealthCare.gov, not a state or federal marketplace, and not affiliated with any government agency.
Almost every “cheap health insurance” page online means one thing by cheap: a small number next to the word premium. That number is only a quarter of the picture, and chasing it is how people end up insured on paper and unable to afford care.
If you buy through the ACA marketplace, a premium tax credit can take hundreds of dollars a month off the price. It is based on your household size, your age, your county and your estimated income for the coverage year. Some households qualify for a credit large enough to cover a plan's entire premium; many do not. Eligibility and the final amount are determined by the Marketplace, not by us, and the only way to know your number is to run it.
This is worth checking even if you assume you earn too much. The credit phases out gradually rather than stopping at a cliff for most households, and people are wrong about their own eligibility constantly.
Bronze plans have the lowest premium and the highest costs when you actually use them. That is a fine trade if you are healthy and have savings to cover a bad month, and a bad one if you take a regular medication or expect a procedure.
There is one specific case where the cheapest-looking choice is the wrong one: cost-sharing reductions only attach to Silver plans. If your household qualifies for them, a Silver plan can have a lower deductible than a Gold plan while still costing less per month than you would expect. Buy Bronze on price alone and you give that up entirely.
A plan with a narrow network is cheaper because fewer doctors and hospitals are in it. That saves you money right up until the specialist you need is out of network, at which point you pay full price and none of it counts toward your out-of-pocket maximum.
Checking your own doctors and your own prescriptions against a specific plan before you enroll is free, takes a few minutes on the phone, and is the step most often skipped.
Some of the lowest advertised prices are not major medical insurance at all. Short-term medical and fixed indemnity plans are cheaper precisely because they cover less: they are not required to include the ten essential health benefits, they typically exclude pre-existing conditions, and they do not have to cap your out-of-pocket costs.
They have real uses — a two-month gap between jobs, coverage outside an enrollment window — and we will quote them when they fit. What we will not do is put one in front of you as though it were the same thing as a major medical plan.
It depends on your income, your county, your household, your doctors and your prescriptions, and there is no way to answer it from a web page. A licensed agent will run all four levers with you in one call. It costs nothing, marketplace plans cost exactly the same through us as they do on your own, and you are under no obligation to enroll.
Don't see yours? Call a licensed agent — most answers take under two minutes.
Some households do. A premium tax credit is a fixed dollar amount, and in some counties it is large enough to cover the full premium of certain Bronze or Silver plans — so the monthly bill comes to nothing. Whether that is true for you depends on your income, age, household size and county, and eligibility is determined by the Marketplace rather than by us. A $0 premium also does not mean $0 care: the plan still has a deductible and an out-of-pocket maximum.
Not necessarily, and not in the way people expect. Every ACA marketplace plan — Bronze through Platinum — covers the same ten essential health benefits and covers pre-existing conditions. What changes between tiers is how the cost is split between you and the plan, and how wide the network is. What genuinely is weaker coverage is a short-term or indemnity product, which is not required to cover those benefits at all.
No. Marketplace premiums are set by filed, approved rates, so the price is identical whether you enroll through us, through HealthCare.gov or directly with the carrier. You can always enroll on your own at HealthCare.gov or your state exchange for free.
You may still have options. A qualifying life event opens a 60-day Special Enrollment Period, Medicaid and CHIP have no enrollment window at all, and short-term plans can be bought any time of year. A licensed agent can tell you in a few minutes which of those applies to you.
No. We're a licensed insurance agency paid by the carriers, not by you. The premium of any plan is identical whether you enroll through us or directly with the insurer — you just also get an agent who handles renewals and claims questions.
No. Health Enrollment Center is a brand operated by Sprinter Insurance Agency LLC, a private licensed insurance agency. We are not HealthCare.gov, not a state exchange, and not affiliated with any government agency. We help you enroll in marketplace plans when they're the best fit, and we also show private plans the marketplace doesn't carry.
Run the free plan finder or talk to a licensed agent now — no cost, no obligation.