Sep 14, 2022

Interactive: How much will you pay for insurance on the Health Insurance Marketplace?

What's the cost of health insurance through the Marketplace? Plug in different scenarios using this interactive and see what drives health insurance costs. 

Hat tip for co-founder Jessica for requesting for more insurance related resources on the blog! 

The Kaiser Family Foundation has a tool, Health Insurance Marketplace calculator, that asks six questions and then provides users with data on their healthcare premiums and potential subsidies. A 22-year-old single non-smoker earning a $40,000 salary who doesn't receive health insurance through an employer [and not on their parents' plan] and living in Johnson County, Iowa, yields the following results: 

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How you might use this with your students? 

Create a graphical organizer and have students develop different scenarios and see how premiums (cost) and subsidies differ. I created a basic one to get you started. 

  • What is the impact of changing one variable at a time (e.g., income, zip code, size of family, # of children) to see how this impacts their subsidy and costs? 
  • Analyze different family situations (single, small family, large family) to see how that impacts costs and subsidies. 

Makes sense to use this interactive after your students have a strong fundamental understanding of health insurance (see NGPF's Semester Course lesson 7.4 and 7.5

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Looking for more insurance activities? NGPF has over a dozen to choose from.

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Bummer is a fun Arcade game where students will quickly learn about the importance of education (helpful hint: don't overlook the alien insurance)

About the Author

Tim Ranzetta

Tim's saving habits started at seven when a neighbor with a broken hip gave him a dog walking job. Her recovery, which took almost a year, resulted in Tim getting to know the bank tellers quite well (and accumulating a savings account balance of over $300!). His recent entrepreneurial adventures have included driving a shredding truck, analyzing executive compensation packages for Fortune 500 companies and helping families make better college financing decisions. After volunteering in 2010 to create and teach a personal finance program at Eastside College Prep in East Palo Alto, Tim saw firsthand the impact of an engaging and activity-based curriculum, which inspired him to start a new non-profit, Next Gen Personal Finance.

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