This isn’t a way to sign up for insurance, but it is an efficient way to get a ballpark estimate of what your options will be on an exchange. Unlike the official HealthCare.gov website, you don’t need to open an account or enter private information such as your name or Social Security number on this calculator, provided by the nonprofit Kaiser Family Foundation.
Enter basic information about your household (number of people, income), and you can get a sense of what subsidy you might qualify for, if any, and what the premiums are likely to be for plans labeled bronze, silver, gold, and platinum. Those labels refer to pricing options, which vary by monthly premium and by the deductibles you’d need to pay out-of-pocket as health services are used. (Some people will be eligible to have another Obamacare choice – so-called catastrophic insurance – instead of a plan from the menu of metallic labels.)
The HealthCare.gov website offers the link to the Kaiser calculator, but emphasizes that what you’ll see will be guideline figures, not definitive numbers on what you’ll owe. Still, it’s a helpful tool for testing out options for yourself or family members.
