Choosing the right insurance plan for you and your family can be daunting, but now is the time to look into your healthcare coverage.
If your employer doesn’t offer insurance, you can take advantage of the Health Insurance Marketplace, with added incentives this year thanks to the American Rescue Plan.
Susan Nielsen, Assistant Director of Consumer Sales at Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Utah says, “This year especially everyone should go out and take their time to take a look at the Marketplace.”
Nielsen says, thanks to the American Rescue Plan, more Utahns who qualify for a Utah Health Insurance Marketplace plan can take advantage of premium tax credits which have increased in size to subsidize more of the health plan cost.
“Many more families will find they have more dollars to help them towards their premium,” says Nielsen.
Nielsen says these tax credits will help more people upfront, but could reduce their tax refunds at the end of the year. But it’s still worth looking into for those 50 and older, or those with larger families.
“The federal government made a lot more dollars available this year, and we really want everyone to go out and take a look and understand what that looks like as we look at open enrollment for 2022,” says Nielsen.
When you shop for an individualized or a family plan, where do you start? Nielsen says first, you want to make some decisions about your family and how you access care.
Take a look at your prescriptions, planned surgeries, or new babies coming next year and let that guide you as you choose the best plan for your family with a number of tools available to you at healthcare.gov.
Nielsen says, “There’s all sorts of things you can do to help make that decision making easier. The other thing that we always recommend is call a broker.”
The period to sign up is going on now. Enroll by December 15th for coverage beginning January 1st, or by the extended deadline of January 15th for coverage to begin February 1st.