Jean Chatzky
Do one thing: If you don’t already have health insurance – or even if you just want to see if you can get a better deal next year – visit Healthcare.gov and answer a few questions (the state you live in and your email address) to find more options to meet your needs.
Costs, Coverage, and Care
Research shows that the United States has the highest healthcare costs of any developed nation globally. You might think that would mean Americans are also among the healthiest, right? Unfortunately, you may have already guessed that’s far from the truth. The US has some of the worst healthcare outcomes across a variety of measures including infant mortality and rates of chronic disease compared to other first-world nations.
Affordability. Hearing that can make it pretty hard to plunk down the thousands of dollars needed each year to pay for even the most “affordable” healthcare insurance. To add insult to injury, the cost of healthcare likely won’t ever get more affordable until you reach your mid-60s and qualify for Medicare, the government’s health insurance plan for retired and disabled Americans.
Prepare for the Unexpected. That’s why many people find themselves asking…do you really need health insurance? The answer is typically a resounding yes. Even if you are young and healthy, you don’t want to lose your savings and other assets because something happens and you don’t have a health insurer to cushion the blow. After all, emergencies — particularly medical ones — happen every day. You could injure yourself or be injured by someone else and incur tens of thousands of dollars in unexpected medical expenses.
The High Cost of Health Insurance
All of which is not to say that health insurance is not expensive. It’s getting more expensive every year. Family premiums for employer-sponsored health insurance rose 7% in 2024 (the same amount they rose in 2023) to reach an average of some $25,570 annually, according to KFF’s 2024 Employer Health Survey.
Cost Breakdown. On average, employees in sponsored plans contribute about $6,300 each year to the cost of their family coverage, or about $525 a month. Because that is an average, some individuals and families pay less, while others pay much more for coverage that may or may not meet their needs.
How to Make Healthcare Coverage More Affordable
Garrett Moore, a certified financial planner, says he can’t recall ever recommending that someone go without health insurance, or at least some form of protection. “We have excellent healthcare here in America, but it can be unfathomably expensive in a worst-case scenario, resulting in the medical bankruptcy stats that exist today.”
Cost Sharing Reductions May be an Option
Those who buy coverage through the US government’s health insurance marketplace (also known as the exchange) may qualify for cost-sharing reductions — sometimes called subsidies — based on their income, according to HealthCare.gov.
Earlier in 2024, CNN.com analyzed nearly 790 marketplace plans across 33 states to get an idea of the average price people are likely to pay for health insurance coverage. “For monthly premiums, the overall average cost was $1,178. But that number can change a lot based on age. For instance, a 21-year-old paid a monthly average premium of just $397, while a 50-year-old paid an average of $712,” according to the analysis. (If you do the math, that’s way more per month than the average for employee-sponsored plans for families.)
How to Shop For a Plan
In general, the more healthcare costs you agree to pay for out of pocket before insurance kicks in — a number known as your “deductible” — the lower your premiums are likely to be. That’s why high-deductible health insurance plans have been among the fastest-growing policies in the country over the last decade. Will one work for you? If you’re relatively young and healthy, the answer is generally yes. The older you are with more conditions that require you to seek medical treatment, the less likely these policies are to suit you.
Weigh Benefits and Options. Take a look at the different policies available to you on the exchange or your employer’s menu. To figure out the least expensive plan with the most benefits you can afford, healthcare insurance advocates say you should determine the maximum out-of-pocket amount you will have to pay for a particular health insurance policy to help you figure out which will likely work best for you.
The Downside Of Going Bare Is Significant
Need more convincing that healthcare insurance is worth the price tag? There’s also this: Uninsured adults are less likely than adults with any kind of health insurance coverage to receive preventive and screening services on a timely basis, according to research from the National Institutes of Health (NIH). Unfortunately, that also means, according to NIH data, that those without health insurance are less likely to get annual screenings that can potentially catch life-threatening illnesses in early stages, such as breast and prostate cancer, when they are more treatable.
With reporting by Casandra Andrews
Chris O'Shea
