How Much Does Health Insurance Cost With and Without a Subsidy?

If you don’t have health insurance, you’re missing out on a lot of the benefits, and may even be penalized come tax season. In this article, we will be discussing the benefits of health insurance and the average cost for individuals, families, and certain financial situations so you can determine the cost for health insurance monthly, the cost for health insurance yearly, and financial situations such as health insurance for low-income household. So Why is Having Health Insurance So Important? The top three benefits of having health insurance are, firstly, that it will allow you to save money on the rates that hospitals and healthcare professionals charge for their services. For example, when you visit a hospital without health insurance, you may be charged for every single thing that is done to you, and every single piece of equipment used in your procedure. This means that a nurse can charge you $1,200 for every hour of their service. They can charge you $70 for a box of gauze pads of which you only used two, and just about anything else that will increase the hospital’s bill for your stay. When you have health insurance, the insurance providers negotiate with the hospitals and doctors to get you a set rate.

Quicker Than The Emergency Room

The second reason to have health insurance is avoiding the emergency room. The emergency room (ER) should only be used for actual emergencies and most of what people consider an emergency can be treated if you visit your local health insurance designated doctor. Another reason to avoid the ER is that patients are taken in not on a first come first serve basis, but on the severity of the injury. This means that if you broke your leg and are in severe pain, you will have to wait for others who have a more severe injury than yours, and you will most likely end up paying expenses out of pocket.

Free Or Discounted Services

The third reason why health insurance is needed is for when you’re qualified as a health insurance holder you have a list of preventive services at your disposal. These include things like screening blood pressure and cholesterol, immunization vaccines, screening HIV if you’re over 15 but under 65, prevention of sexually transmitted diseases (STDs), and more. Now let us talk about the average cost for these healthcare programs.

The Average Cost of Insurance Nationwide

According to the website Consumer Reports, the average cost of insurance varies from state to state, and will also vary on other factors. Many states have taken it upon themselves to lower the cost of health insurance because it has risen throughout the years and it is people’s health have suffered because of their inability to pay the monthly premium. Just like real estate, health insurance varies by a list of factors which may include whether or not you’re in a rural area, as well your personal financial situation, and/or the profession you’re in. For example, people who are in more sedentary professions will pay more due to their increased chances of developing a cardiovascular disease. With that being said, below are a few states and their cost of insurance for monthly premiums.

Average Cost For Health Insurance Monthly By State 

• California: $435 average monthly premium
• Texas: $444 average monthly premium
• Florida: $477 average monthly premium
• New York: $569 average monthly premium

By these numbers we can then verify the cost for health insurance yearly would be $5,220 for California, $5,328 for Texas, $5,724 for Florida, and $6,828 for New York.

Average Cost of Health Insurance for Individuals

For individuals, the cost for health insurance monthly will also vary, because of the large amount of personal financial situations which make it hard to determine a set cost. However, we can still add every state’s individual premium costs and divide it by the number of states (50) to determine the average cost of health insurance for individuals across the country. This will give you a good view into how much you can expect to pay, and whether or not you’re paying more or less than the individual nationwide average. Because there are 50 states, the total monthly premium costs add up to $23,434. If we then divide by 50 turns out to be $468.68 for an individual health insurance plan’s monthly premium payment. This would mean that the cost for health insurance yearly for an individual across the country averages to about $5,624.16.

Average Cost of Health Insurance for Families

So, we determined the average cost of health insurance for an individual, but what would it cost a family to have health insurance? It’s not as easy as you would think, but it is very similar to simply multiplying the amount that an individual pays or should pay, by the number of people in the family. Health insurance for small families will not vary as much as health insurance for large families. It will all depend on the number of family members are in each of these families and what we consider small, say three people, or large, eight or more people.

The Size Of Your Family Does Matter

It’s actually a pretty close estimate of how much a family would end up paying because, on a study published by USA Today earlier this year, the findings show that a family of four should expect to pay $28,000 for family health insurance. This may be considered health insurance for small families, and if we multiply the individual average of the nation, $5,624 times four, we get around $22,000. The other six thousand dollars would be the average that families pay for out of pocket expenses and medical procedures that the health insurance may not cover, and again, it varies from state to state and is simply an average so make sure to check the state in which you live to see how much you’re paying below or over the nationwide average.

The Shocking Truth

This same study showed something more shocking about a family’s healthcare costs, and this is the fact that the cost goes up by about $100 every month whether we’re looking at health insurance for large families, or health insurance for small families. Hence the reason why in 2010 the same family healthcare barely broke the $20,000 mark and why eight years later it is up to $28,000.

Average Cost of Health Insurance for Financial Situations

So far we’ve discussed the cost of health insurance for individuals and families by averaging the country as a whole, as well as by looking at four of the biggest states in the country and what their averages are for monthly premiums. Now let’s take a look at what people can expect to pay for certain financial situations. These certain “financial situations” determine whether or not you’re available for affordable healthcare and range from health insurance for low-income house-hold or health insurance for moderate home income. If you fall into what is considered “low” or “moderate” income families, you can qualify for help to pay for your monthly health insurance premiums.

Simply Having A Large Family

The threshold to be considered for health insurance for moderate home income is anywhere from an income of $25,000 and $100,000. On the other hand, trying to find health insurance for large families that is affordable will be a great feat since most private health insurance companies will not want to take on the risk, and you will end up paying more than the average if your family size is eight or more people.

Average Affordable Health Care Costs by State

• California: $187 average affordable health care monthly premium
• Texas: $127 average affordable health care monthly premium
• Florida: $114 average affordable health care monthly premium
• New York: $171 average affordable health care monthly premium

As you can see, if we compare the regular average monthly premium with the average monthly premium of someone with a financial situation that is “below average”, the savings are substantial.

Insurance Through Your Employer

Another financial situation that can affect the price you pay for health insurance is if the insurance is being offered by your employer. These programs are often given by the employer to the employee and his or her dependents. Both parties, the employer and employee, share the costs of the insurance plan, but the employer takes care of selecting and enrolling you in the plan. The average cost of an employer plan was around $6,000 in 2016 which was around $2,000 more than if you had an individual plan created by yourself. Even though an employer healthcare plan is more expensive than an individual one, if you find yourself in this financial situation, it will end up saving you money because there will be two parties splitting the costs as opposed to only paying them yourself.