We’ve been telling you for months, heck – years – that health insurance will cost less on the health insurance exchange.  But, exact numbers? Well, that’s hard to say.   We know there will be premium subsidies (tax credits), but it will depend on a lot of different factors: what your income is, where you live, what plan you choose, etc.  In fact, unless you qualify for Medicaid, you probably won’t really know what the cost of insurance will be until you log onto the New York State Health Benefit Exchange on October 1st.

But, until then, the estimates of health insurance costs are getting much better.   This is largely due to the release of the approved monthly health insurance rates  for Exchange plans a few weeks ago, and the genius subsidy calculator put out by Kaiser.  The calculator uses an estimate based on average insurance prices in the nation.  But, by logging into the subsidy calculator and punching in some basic information about your household, you can see what the maximum percentage of income your family is expected to pay for insurance.  You can then compare that to the cost of the 2nd lowest-cost silver plan in your area (available here).  If the annual cost amounts to more than the % of income you are expected to pay, then the difference will likely be the amount of your subsidy.  I say “likely” because it doesn’t factor in all of the variables that will be taken into consideration on the Exchange, but it’s still a good guess.  That subsidy amount can then be applied to the cost of any plan (platinum, gold, silver or bronze) to get a final price.

Of course, not everyone who wants to purchase insurance on the Exchange will be eligible for subsidies to lower the cost.  But, a new report by Kaiser estimates that as many as 48% of people now buying insurance on their own would be eligible.  Either way, its worth a shot to log into the Exchange after October 1st to see what you may be eligible for.  You might just be surprised!

Here is the page (you might want to bookmark it):

http://www.healthbenefitexchange.ny.gov/