“When people hear about it, they can’t believe it’s that good.”īut not all Covered California enrollees have such a happy surprise awaiting them. “I call it the no-brainer plan,” says Edsel D’souza, a partner at the Citrust Insurance Agency in Culver City. In the bronze plan, by comparison, the medical deductible for an individual is $6,300, with an out-of-pocket spending limit of $8,200 and a separate pharmacy deductible of $500.Ĭovered California and all insurance agents worth their salt are encouraging people in bronze plans who meet the zero premium income criteria to make that switch. The individual version of the plan has a medical deductible of just $75, no deductible for prescription drugs and an $800 annual cap on how much enrollees pay out-of-pocket before 100% of their medical costs are covered.
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But they would also pay no premium if they chose a particularly generous plan known as silver-94. In general, individuals and families with annual incomes between 138% and 150% of the federal poverty line - $17,775 to $19,320 for an individual and $36,570 to $39,750 for a family of four - can get the lowest level of coverage, known as bronze, for no monthly premium in 2022.
#COVERED CALIFORNIA FOR FREE#
The American Rescue Plan not only offers many Californians dramatically cheaper premiums but also makes Cadillac coverage available for free if their income is low enough. Subscribe to California Healthline's free Daily Edition. So a different health plan could be a better deal than your current one.īut if you like the medical providers in your current network, make sure you will have access to them in any health plan you consider for next year. Insurers change their prices every year, and new companies may have entered the market in your region. If you are already in a Covered California plan you like, it might be tempting to simply renew it without checking other options. The additional federal tax credits are slated to expire at the end of 2022, but the current version of President Joe Biden’s roughly $2 trillion Build Back Better legislation, pending in Congress, would extend them through 2025. Consumers can enroll anytime during the year if they’ve undergone a major life change, such as losing a job, moving, having a baby, getting married or being affected by a natural disaster. “I don’t know anyone who can comfortably pass on $10,000.”Įnrollment for 2022 coverage through Covered California - as well as for individual and family health plans purchased outside the exchange - ends Jan. “It’s a lot of money that people don’t realize they’re leaving on the table,” says Peter Lee, Covered California’s executive director. Among them are 575,000 uninsured people, most of whom could get coverage for $0 a month, and about 260,000 people who buy insurance outside the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace and could save hundreds of dollars a month by switching into it, according to estimates from Covered California.
#COVERED CALIFORNIA FULL#
Many middle-class families who previously paid full fare for their health plans got financial assistance this year through the American Rescue Plan, a law that significantly expanded federal tax credits that reduce the premiums consumers pay.īut hundreds of thousands of Californians who are eligible for the credits are not yet reaping the benefit. Wolfson addressing the challenges consumers face in California’s health care landscape.