State and Federal Exchanges

You’ve certainly heard about the federal health insurance exchange at healthcare.gov, and you may be familiar with your state’s exchange and its products.

Comparing and enrolling in an exchange plan may be an option for your student, but as with employer insurance, there are little known issues to consider before enrolling in these plans:

Young adults pay more: ACA imposes a pricing restriction on exchange plans that ensures that older adults don’t pay more than 3 times the premium of younger adults. Because older adults use health insurance more frequently than young adults, the result is that the carriers have increased premiums for the younger enrollees so that they can offset less expensive premiums for older adults.

No subsidies for employer plan-eligible students: This is true for all purchases on the exchange. If the potential enrollee can be covered under an employer provided plan that meets minimum value requirements, then they are not eligible for subsidies, even if their household income qualifies them otherwise.