Layout:
Home > Checked our Obamacare health costs

Checked our Obamacare health costs

September 27th, 2013 at 03:17 pm

Someone posted a calculator on Facebook where you could check how much your healthcare could cost next year. We all have employer healthcare, but I thought it would be a good idea to check. Part of my emergency budget is the monthly cost of healthcare should we no longer be covered, which I've always put at $400 per adult and $200 per kid, so $1600 total.

So I filled out the calculator with our current incomes but saying we had no employer healthcare. I was pleasantly surprised by the results!

NT and I are legally married, so I put us and the kids down as a household. Our cost would be $6260 per year, or $522 a month. I put AS down as her own household with just her salary, and her cost would be $1759 a year, or $147 per month.

That means if we had no healthcare coverage and our current incomes in place, we'd pay $669 per month! And it would get cheaper if we were unemployed or on reduced income -- but that seems like a good benchmark for our emergency budget.

That takes our emergency budget down to about $3100! Which would mean we've got nearly 5 months' worth in our emergency fund vs. a little under 4 months.

Here's the

Text is calculator and Link is http://www.npr.org/blogs/health/2013/09/26/226456791/how-much-will-obamacare-cost-me-try-our-calculator
calculator if you want to check your projected costs.

5 Responses to “Checked our Obamacare health costs”

  1. LuckyRobin Says:
    1380296108

    If we didn't have health insurance ours would cost $10,965 for a Silver package (no subsidies for us because of income), with out of pocket costs capped at $12,700 and 70% of stuff covered. We are currently paying $10,800 for our insurance through DH's employer, plus a $5000 deductible, so it would be a savings for us if we could get it. I don't know if you can just purchase flat out, though, if you can get insurance through an employer.

  2. TashaC. Says:
    1380296681

    ummm thats great! I could really use Obamacare if it goes through, I'm paying $1530/month for COBRA for husband, me and soon to be born baby.

  3. ceejay74 Says:
    1380304463

    That's right Robin, it's only available if you don't have healthcare through your employer. I think in some cases if your employer's healthcare doesn't meet a certain affordability threshold, you could still be available. Might be worth looking into, though I don't know how they determine whether an employer's is too expensive. Prob. varies by state.

    Our combined expenses from our employers are a bit cheaper, I think, so we wouldn't qualify for that. I just wanted to get an idea what it would be like, for our emergency plan. (It also makes self-employment seem a bit more feasible, if one of us ever wants to go that route!)

  4. PatientSaver Says:
    1380325353

    I've checked the calculators a few times, and am pretty sure with a lower income you'd get some nice subsidies, so that my monthly premium would drop by about $200. However, I just read earlier tonight that you should use your 2014 income projection but that they go by your previous year's federal income tax return. So for 2012 my AGI was something like $30,000 but for 2013 will bump up to about $40K with the new bank job starting in October.

    So not exacltt sure what income to use.

  5. FrugalTexan75 Says:
    1380329232

    If I didn't have insurance through my employer, my cost would be approximately $130/month for the Silver plan. Or about $70/month for the Bronze plan. Really not bad at all either way. (This is after the subsidies.)

Leave a Reply

(Note: If you were logged in, we could automatically fill in these fields for you.)
*
Will not be published.
   

* Please spell out the number 4.  [ Why? ]

vB Code: You can use these tags: [b] [i] [u] [url] [email]