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Thoughts on Health Insurance for 2015

What you pay for health insurance is governed mostly by where you live.

Being self-employed I have the joy of buying for health insurance for myself. Aetna discontinued my current plan for 2015. Did I mention just how much I hated Aetna? Last week I used HealthCare.gov to check my options. The application starts with your ZIP code.

I started thinking: how different are health insurance prices between cities?

Short answer: up to 107% more.

The experiment

Which cities?

I picked nine cities for various reasons:

<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td>Lancaster PA</td>
        <td>I live here</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Austin TX<br>Brooklyn NY<br>Portland OR<br>San Francisco CA</td>
        <td>Design/tech cities</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Asheville NC<br>Boise ID</td>
        <td>Friends and family</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Salt Lake City UT</td>
        <td>I read their health costs were lowest in 2014</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Miami FL</td>
        <td>Random geography</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>
City Reason

What persona?

I used a persona based on myself:

  • Individual plan
  • Excluded from income subsidy
  • 28 years old
  • Non-smoker
  • Non-parent
  • Not pregnant

Note: individuals earning over $46,680 are ineligible for subsidies. I saw the same plans/prices testing with $50k, $100k, and $500k income.

What pricing benchmark?

I want low premiums and high deductibles. Normal health care will never bust my out-of-pocket max, but any hospitalization probably will. Based on my age, fitness, and environment it’s a small risk that I have savings to back up.

Which plans?

My pricing benchmark meant either:

Catastrophic plans
Under 30 my health risks are minimal (aka indestructible).
<dt>Bronze plans</dt>
<dd>Over 30 some catastrophic plans are income restricted, so I might be forced into bronze plans for 2017.</dd>

Catastrophic plans

<tbody class="tlf">
    <tr>
        <td>Asheville NC</td>
        <td>$156</td>
        <td>+3%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Austin TX</td>
        <td>$137</td>
        <td>-9%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Boise ID</td>
        <td>—</td>
        <td>—</td>
        <td>—</td>
        <td>—</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Brooklyn NY</td>
        <td>$154</td>
        <td>+2%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Lancaster PA</td>
        <td>$107</td>
        <td class="good">-29%</td>
        <td>$6350</td>
        <td class="good">$6350</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Miami FL</td>
        <td>$180</td>
        <td class="bad">+19%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Portland OR</td>
        <td>$128</td>
        <td class="good">-15%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Salt Lake City UT</td>
        <td>$139</td>
        <td>-8%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>San Francisco CA</td>
        <td>$208</td>
        <td class="bad">+38%</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
        <td>$6600</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>

<tfoot>
    <tr>
        <th>Mean</th>
        <th>$151</th>
        <th>&mdash;</th>
        <th>$6531</th>
        <th>$6531</th>
    </tr>
</tfoot>
City Premium % Mean Deductible OOP Max

Bargain: -29% Lancaster, -15% Portland
Expensive: +38% San Francisco, +19% Miami

The out-of-pocket max for an individual in 2015 cannot exceed $6600. Only Lancaster had a plan under the max. Boise had no catastrophic plans for me (probably an income exclusion).

Bronze plans

<tbody class="tlf">
    <tr>
        <td>Asheville NC</td>
        <td>$220</td>
        <td>+13%</td>
        <td>$6275</td>
        <td>$6400</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Austin TX</td>
        <td>$165</td>
        <td>-15%</td>
        <td>$6300</td>
        <td>$6300</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Boise ID</td>
        <td>$156</td>
        <td class="good">-20%</td>
        <td>$3950</td>
        <td>$6350</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Brooklyn NY</td>
        <td>$308</td>
        <td class="bad">+58%</td>
        <td>$3000</td>
        <td>$6350</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Lancaster PA</td>
        <td>$167</td>
        <td>-15%</td>
        <td>$4000</td>
        <td>$6350</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Miami FL</td>
        <td>$190</td>
        <td>-3%</td>
        <td>$6500</td>
        <td>$6500</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Portland OR</td>
        <td>$149</td>
        <td class="good">-24%</td>
        <td>$5250</td>
        <td class="good">$5250</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>Salt Lake City UT</td>
        <td>$157</td>
        <td class="good">-20%</td>
        <td>$6300</td>
        <td>$6300</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>San Francisco CA</td>
        <td>$245</td>
        <td class="bad">+26%</td>
        <td>$4500</td>
        <td>$6250</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>

<tfoot>
    <tr>
        <th>Mean</th>
        <th>$195</th>
        <th>&mdash;</th>
        <th>$5119</th>
        <th>$6228</th>
    </tr>
</tfoot>
State Premium % Mean Deductible OOP Max

Bargain: -24% Portland, -20% Boise, -20% Salt Lake City
Expensive: +58% Brooklyn, +26% San Francisco

Only Portland had a significantly lower out-of-pocket max.

The results

  • Portland stands out in both tiers as a bargain.
  • Lancaster, Boise, and Salt Lake City are economical.
  • Brooklyn and San Francisco are crazy expensive — surprise.

Annual liability range

Comparing premiums vs premiums + OOP max these are the best/worst cities:

Catastrophic plans

  • $1284 min $7634 max in Lancaster
  • $2496 min $9096 max in San Francisco

Bronze plans

  • $1788 min $7038 max in Portland
  • $3696 min $10046 max in Brooklyn

In conclusion

Where you live may swing health care costs heavily:

  • +107% for using no health care.
  • +43% for using maximum health care.

What I’m actually paying

Lancaster is super affordable for me. My doctor is in-network, so I bought the $107/mo catastrophic plan. The next plan up was $145/mo with negligible benefit differences. I wager on staying healthy and pocketing the extra $456.

Compared to prior years:

<tbody>
    <tr>
        <td>2013</td>
        <td>Aetna<br>PPO High Deductible 3000 with HSA</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$88</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$3000</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$3000</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>2014</td>
        <td>Aetna<br>PPO High Deductible 3000 with HSA</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$91</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$3000</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$3000</td>
    </tr>

    <tr>
        <td>2015</td>
        <td>Capital Blue Cross<br>Healthy Benefits Value HMO 6350</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$107</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$6350</td>
        <td class="a-right tlf">$6350</td>
    </tr>
</tbody>

<tfoot>
    <tr>
        <th>&nbsp;</th>
        <th>YOY Difference</th>
        <th class="a-right">+17.5%</th>
        <th class="a-right">+111.6%</th>
        <th class="a-right">+111.6%</th>
    </tr>
</tfoot>
Year Insurance Premium Deductible OOP Max

Switching from PPO to HMO should’ve been cheaper, but it wasn’t. That’s the cost of national healthcare reform.

On the bright side, it’s just me. Insuring a family is crazy expensive.

Discourse Gravitated