Health Insurance Marketplace

The health insurance marketplace is a federal platform, also known as the exchange or marketplace that offers healthcare insurance plans to families, small businesses, and individuals under the affordable care act, or Obamacare. The marketplace is meant to extend a health insurance option to millions of Americans who do not receive insurance coverage through employer-sponsored plans. Health Plans on the exchange must meet minimum essential health benefits and be considered a qualified health plan.

The health insurance marketplace was created through the Affordable Care Act. It enables various insurers to provide insurance plans based on cost and need. Several states have marketplaces, while the federal government has an exchange to cater for residents from states that don’t.

What is a Health Insurance Marketplace anyway?

The health insurance marketplace is a comparison shopping area for insurance for individuals and businesses. The platform offers space for private insurance companies to list various health plans, in a bronze, silver, and gold tier, where shoppers can compare and contrast the plans and select the most suitable plan that fits their income and needs. You’ll be able to compare monthly premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums for each plan. The federal government oversees the federal marketplace.

The exchanges provide those seeking insurance with premium subsidies plus cost-sharing reductions that reduce premiums and out-of-pocket costs for eligible individuals, which accounted for 9.6 million people in 2020.

How does the health insurance marketplace work?

To apply to the health insurance marketplace, you have to fill out an application, go through various plans, and select one based on your income and place of residence. You’ll then be informed whether you qualify for financial assistance and if you’ll be eligible for various other programs such as Medicaid.

For you to qualify, you must:

· Reside in the United States

· Be a United States citizen or be lawfully present

· Not be in jail at the time of application

How does one enroll for a health care plan?

You can enroll in a health care plan during the open enrollment period. However, you could also be allowed to enroll through the special enrollment period if you’ve gone through a major life event such as getting married, losing your coverage, or if you’ve just had a baby.

What if you have a preexisting condition?

Preexisting conditions will not bar you from getting health coverage. Insurance companies should also not charge you more if you have a preexisting condition. However, if you have an individual plan that excludes preexisting conditions, then the plan doesn’t have to change its rules.

Will I pay the penalty if I’m uninsured?

Can you afford to buy health insurance but still choose not to? Before 2019 you’d have paid an individual shared responsibility fee, but you don’t have to worry since the fee was repealed in the same year.

Health insurance marketplace requirements

The affordable care act has requirements for families, individuals, and insurance companies offering coverage. While the plans offered by insurers in the marketplace can vary, they should provide ten basic requirements.

These benefits include:

• Patient ambulatory services
• Hospitalization
• Emergency services
• Laboratory services
• Substance use disorder and mental health services
• Maternity care, pregnancy, and newborn care
• Chronic disease management, wellness, and preventive care
• Habilitative and rehabilitative services
• Pediatric services

What if you are self-employed?

If you are self-employed, which means that you either run your own business or freelance, you can purchase an individual plan in the health insurance marketplace. You also don’t have to wait for a marketplace plan since you qualify to apply in the special enrollment period.

Is health insurance beneficial? Health insurance is a safety net.

Health insurance is quite important because it’s a safety net if you unexpectedly get ill or injured. Your health insurance is there to cover your bills, especially when you don’t have enough money set aside to cover them yourself.

Usually, there are often many costs that crop up whenever you get ill such as emergency care, surgery, prescription drugs, scans, lab work, examinations, etc. These costs can add up quickly and can even make most people go bankrupt, especially if they can’t afford to pay out-of-pocket.

With health insurance, you won’t have to face the bills by yourself. Plus, it’s not the kind of thing you want to deal with while you’re in the hospital bed. Buying health insurance is a great way to be prepared for any eventuality that may affect your health.

Preventing Illness

Health insurance helps you from getting sick in the first place by access preventative health care routinely. You could use it to go for:

• Annual check-ups
• Blood tests and lab work
• Vaccinations
• Scans and screening

Doing this will help you stay healthy; plus, your doctor will be able to diagnose any disease as early as possible to prevent illness. You could use health insurance to cover any chronic conditions you may already have, such as depression, diabetes, and heart conditions.

What does Skyline Insurance Agency offer?

Skyline Insurance Agency is an agency dedicated to helping families and individuals make sense of the complicated health insurance company. We help people who don’t have employer-sponsored insurance plans choose the best health plans from the health insurance marketplace.

Skyline Insurance Agency is a full-service, independent insurance agency that serves clients in Utah and its surrounding states. Our status as an independent agency (or broker) means that we don’t work for specific insurance companies.

Rather, we work for you, our valued clients. We place your needs above everything else and ensure that we recommend products and services that are valuable and beneficial to you. We believe that you are the reason we are in business; therefore, we ensure that our sole purpose in the industry is to serve you.

We understand that there are various other insurance agencies out there, and we know that you, our clients, choose who handles your insurance. While most of us sell similar products, our goal as your partners is to ensure that we go the extra mile and ensure that you are satisfied with our services.

Next Steps

As early as 2021, the health insurance marketplace may be the best place to get adequate health insurance, especially if you aren’t covered by an employee, spouse, or parent’s health plan. If you are getting by on low income, then the best first stop is our website at Skyline Insurance Agency, where we’ll help you choose the best health insurance plan from the health insurance marketplace.