Compare every plan in your area and see your actual cost after subsidies — no markup, no obligation.
Let me be straight with you about how I get paid, because it tells you everything about how to read this page.
I'm Kevin Wenke — I run Decision Tree Insurance, I'm a CERTIFIED FINANCIAL PLANNER™ and a CLU®. I don't sell or service Obamacare plans. That's a business unto itself: the plans change every year, networks shift, carriers come and go. So I partner with HealthSherpa, a licensed marketplace that lives in that world full-time and lets you compare every plan, check your doctors and prescriptions, and see your real price after subsidies.
Here's the part most websites won't tell you plainly: if you enroll through the link on this page, I receive a referral fee. Not a commission — a referral fee, and it does not come out of your pocket. It can't. The marketplace sets prices by law, and no one is allowed to mark them up. Your plan costs exactly the same whether you use my link or sign up alone in the dark.
So why send you anywhere at all? Because the price on the screen is only half the story. The other half — the half almost nobody helps you with — is the tax credit, and how much of it you actually get to keep. That part isn't a marketplace question. It's a planning question. And it's the thing I do for a living.
Let's get into it.
Not everyone should. Let me give you a real way to think about it instead of a brochure.
Let's call her Dana. Dana's a composite — a stand-in for a few dozen real conversations I've had — but she's about to leave a corporate job to go out on her own, she's got a thyroid condition she manages with a daily pill, and her household income is going to land somewhere in the low six figures depending on how the year goes. Where does Dana belong?
You're a strong fit for an ACA plan if: you don't have coverage through an employer, you have a pre-existing condition that would get you denied or gouged anywhere else, or your income qualifies you for a tax credit that brings the price down to earth. Dana checks two of those boxes — her thyroid condition means the marketplace is the one place that has to cover her, no questions asked, and depending on how she manages that income, a sizable credit may be in reach.
That guaranteed-coverage piece is the heart of the whole law. An ACA plan cannot turn you down, cannot charge you more, and cannot exclude treatment for a condition you already have. If your body has a history, this is your house.
You might look elsewhere if: you're healthy, your income will sit well above the subsidy range, and you don't qualify for any help. The unsubsidized price can be steep, and some healthy people find better value elsewhere — just know those alternatives often skip things ACA plans must include, like maternity, mental health, or prescriptions, and some cap what they'll pay. Cheaper isn't the same as covered.
If you bought a marketplace plan in the last few years, the price you remember is probably wrong now.
From 2021 through 2025, Congress turbocharged the subsidies. They made the help more generous and erased the old income ceiling, so even higher earners could qualify. Those enhanced subsidies expired on January 1, 2026. The rules snapped back to the way they worked before — and the most important piece is back with them.
It's called the subsidy cliff, and it sits at 400% of the federal poverty level. For 2026 that line is roughly $62,600 for a single person, $84,600 for a couple, and $128,600 for a family of four. Under the line, you can get help. One dollar over it, and the help vanishes completely. Not shrinks. Vanishes.
This isn't a rounding error. For an older couple, crossing that line by a single dollar can swing a premium from around a hundred dollars a month to well over a thousand. That's the whole ballgame — and it's exactly where a little planning is worth thousands of real dollars.
The premium tax credit is the government helping pay your premium. For a lot of households it's the difference between "covered" and "can't afford it." To qualify, the short version: you buy through the marketplace, your income lands between 100% and 400% of the poverty line for your area, you file a tax return, and you're not eligible for affordable employer coverage, Medicare, or Medicaid.
Now here's the part I promised — the part that's actually mine.
The size of your credit is built on your Modified Adjusted Gross Income — your MAGI. The lower your MAGI, the bigger your credit. And critically, MAGI is the number that decides which side of that cliff you land on. Here's the thing most people never realize: MAGI isn't just something that happens to you. It's something you can often steer.
This is what we focus on helping people understand. A few of the levers:
Deductible IRA contributions. If you're still working and eligible, money you put into a traditional (deductible) IRA comes straight off your MAGI. Dana, leaving her corporate job, might use a contribution like this to drop her income under the cliff — and turn a year with no subsidy into a year with a real one.
HSA contributions. If you're on an HSA-qualified plan, every dollar you contribute also lowers your MAGI — while building an asset that stays yours. That's a rare two-for-one, and I'll come back to it below because it's the move most people miss.
Roth vs. Traditional distributions in retirement. This one is big for early retirees. If you're living off your savings before Medicare kicks in at 65, where you pull income from matters enormously. Money you withdraw from a traditional IRA or 401(k) counts toward MAGI and can push you over the cliff. Money you withdraw from a Roth generally doesn't count. So a retiree who leans on Roth dollars in the years they're on an ACA plan can keep reported income — and therefore MAGI — low enough to capture a credit worth far more than the tax they "saved" by deferring. The order you spend your accounts in is a lever. Most people pull it backwards.
But know there's a floor. This is the guardrail nobody tells you about: you can push MAGI too low. Drop under 100% of the poverty line and the credit doesn't grow — it disappears entirely, and in states that didn't expand Medicaid you can fall into a gap with no help at all. So the goal was never "as low as possible." It's landing in the right window — comfortably above the floor, safely under the cliff. Finding that window is the whole art, and it's where a second set of eyes earns its keep.
A practical note on the mechanics: most people take the credit in advance, so it lowers the monthly premium right away, and then reconcile it on Form 8962 with the tax return they file the following year. Guess your income too low and earn more than expected, and you'll repay some of that advance credit at tax time. If you're anywhere near the 400% line, be conservative about how much advance credit you take — it's far easier to collect a little extra at filing than to write a check back.
None of this is a loophole. It's just knowing which dial to turn, and when. The marketplace won't tell you that. A call center won't. That's planning — and if your income lands anywhere near that cliff, it's worth a conversation before you file.
Before you fall in love with a price, understand what you're buying. The majority of plans you'll see on the marketplace today are HMOs (or their close cousin, the EPO). In plain English, an HMO works like a club with a guest list.
The insurer builds a network — a specific set of doctors, specialists, and hospitals — and your care is covered when you stay inside that network. Step outside it for non-emergency care, and you're usually paying the whole bill yourself. Many HMOs also ask you to pick a primary care doctor who coordinates your care and refers you to specialists.
Here's the practical part, and it's the one that trips people up: if you have a doctor you want to keep, check whether they're in the plan's network before you enroll. Not every doctor participates in every HMO network — in fact, plenty don't — so it's entirely possible the cheap plan on the screen would mean switching doctors. Same goes for a prescription you depend on; plans cover different drugs at different costs.
This is exactly why the comparison tool I point you to asks, right up front, whether there are specific doctors or medications you need covered. Answer honestly, and it filters the plans to the ones that actually keep your people and your prescriptions. Don't skip that step. A plan that drops your doctor isn't a bargain — it's a problem you bought.
Four things move your premium: your age (fixed by a set ratio), tobacco use (a surcharge you can control), the breadth of the network (wider costs more), and your metal level — which is the real lever.
The metals just describe how you split the bill with the insurer:
Bronze — lowest premium, highest costs when you use care. Built for people who want catastrophic protection and rarely see a doctor. And — file this away for the next section — many Bronze plans are built to pair with a Health Savings Account.
Silver — the middle, and the sleeper pick. If you qualify for cost-sharing help, it lands only on Silver plans, which can quietly make a Silver the best deal on the board. If you qualify for help, look at Silver first.
Gold — higher premium, lower costs at the point of care. Good if you know you'll use it.
Platinum — highest premium, lowest costs when care is needed. Built for someone managing an ongoing condition who'd rather pay steadily than get surprised.
I want to show you something that turns a "high deductible" from a scary phrase into one of the best financial moves on this whole page.
To open and fund a Health Savings Account, you need an HSA-qualified high-deductible plan. For 2026, that means a deductible of at least $1,700 for self-only coverage or $3,400 for a family. Plenty of Bronze plans clear that bar on purpose. Once you're on one, you can contribute up to $4,400 (self-only) or $8,750 (family) in 2026 — plus an extra $1,000 if you're 55 or older.
Now here's why that matters, and I want you to really sit with this distinction.
A premium is their money the second you pay it. You hand it to the insurance company, and whether you use a dollar of care or not, it's gone. An HSA dollar is yours. It doesn't evaporate at year-end. It rolls over, every year, and it keeps belonging to you.
So picture the healthy year — the year you barely touch the doctor. On a low-deductible plan, you paid a fat premium for coverage you didn't use, and that money's gone. On the HSA plan, you paid a smaller premium and the money you set aside is still sitting there with your name on it, available for the next time you need it.
And it gets better with age. Use HSA money for medical costs — at any age — and it comes out completely tax-free. After 65, you can pull it out for anything you want, no penalty at all; you simply pay ordinary income tax on it, exactly like a traditional IRA. So worst case, your HSA behaves like a retirement account you funded with pre-tax dollars. Best case, it's a tax-free medical war chest.
One caveat worth knowing: once you enroll in Medicare, you can no longer contribute to an HSA — though you can keep spending what's already in it, tax-free, for medical costs for the rest of your life. That's a big reason the pre-65 years are prime time to build the account up.
Stack the benefits and you see why I push so hard on this: the contribution is tax-deductible going in, it grows tax-free, it comes out tax-free for medical care — and it lowers the MAGI that determines your subsidy. One move, working four jobs at once. For the right person, that high deductible isn't a cost. It's the price of admission to the best account in the tax code.
Every Obamacare plan, no matter how cheap, has to cover ten essential categories — a high floor: outpatient care, emergency services, hospitalization, pregnancy and newborn care, mental health and substance-use treatment, prescription drugs, rehabilitative services and devices, lab work, preventive and chronic-disease care, and pediatric services including kids' dental and vision. Birth control and breastfeeding support are baked in too.
Preventive care — your annual physical, screenings, vaccines — is covered at no out-of-pocket cost on every plan, even before you touch the deductible. That's the stuff that catches the expensive problem while it's still a cheap problem. (Adult dental and vision aren't required, though many plans add them.)
There are only two doors in.
Open enrollment runs each fall — generally November 1 to mid-December for January 1 coverage, with some states running longer. Anyone can enroll or switch in this window. Whatever plan you're holding when it closes is your plan for the year.
A special enrollment period opens when life changes on you, and lasts 60 days. The common triggers: you got married, had or adopted a baby, got divorced and lost coverage, moved to a new area, or lost other coverage — a job ending, aging off a parent's plan at 26, losing Medicaid. Dropping coverage on purpose or for nonpayment doesn't count. If your life just changed in a big way, you probably have a window — and the tool will confirm it in about thirty seconds.
Compare every plan available where you live, check whether your own doctors and medications are covered, and see your actual price after any tax credit — all in one place, with no markup and no obligation.
Compare Every Plan in Your Area
Even outside an enrollment window you can browse to get oriented; you just won't be able to lock in a plan unless you've had a qualifying life event.
I told you the reason this page exists isn't the link. Here's the deeper reason.
Your health is the foundation the entire financial plan is built on. Lose your coverage and one bad diagnosis becomes the barbarian that sacks the whole castle — savings, house, retirement, all of it drained to a hospital. But there's a quieter danger most people never think about until it's too late: your insurability.
I learned that one personally. After a cancer diagnosis, I reached a point where there isn't a life insurance company on the planet that will sell me another dollar of coverage. Not at any price. The only reason my family is protected is that I locked in what I needed back when I still could. Your health isn't just something to protect for its own sake — it's the asset that keeps the door open to everything else. Once it closes, it doesn't reopen.
So get the health coverage handled first. Then, when you're ready to think about the rest of the castle — protecting your income if you can't work with disability insurance, your family if you're gone with life insurance, your savings if care gets expensive with long-term care coverage — that's the work I'm actually built for. No rush, no pitch. Get covered today. We can talk about the rest when it's time.
Yes — I receive a referral fee, and I'd rather tell you that plainly than hide it. But it's a referral fee, not a commission, and it does not come out of your pocket or change your premium by a single dollar. The marketplace sets prices by law; no one can mark them up. Your price is identical whether you use my link or sign up alone.
Your credit is based on your MAGI, and lowering MAGI raises the credit — and can keep you under the 400% cliff. Common levers include deductible IRA contributions, HSA contributions, and, for retirees, drawing income from Roth accounts (which generally don't count toward MAGI) instead of traditional IRAs (which do). Just don't overshoot: drop under 100% of the poverty line and the credit disappears entirely. The right window depends on your situation, so it's worth a conversation before you file.
For 2026, the premium tax credit cuts off hard at 400% of the federal poverty level — roughly $62,600 for one person and $84,600 for a couple. A single dollar of income over that line can erase the entire credit, which is why managing your income near the threshold matters so much.
Maybe. HMOs only cover care inside their network, and not every doctor participates in every network. Before you enroll, check whether your doctor is in-network — the comparison tool asks which doctors and prescriptions you need so it can show you the plans that keep them.
For 2026 you need an HSA-qualified plan with a deductible of at least $1,700 (self-only) or $3,400 (family). It's worth it because HSA money stays yours: premiums are gone the moment you pay them, but HSA dollars roll over, grow tax-free, come out tax-free for medical costs, and after 65 can be withdrawn for any reason (you just pay ordinary income tax). It also lowers your MAGI, which can grow your subsidy. Note that once you're on Medicare you can no longer contribute, though you can still spend the balance.
This page is for educational purposes only and isn't financial, tax, legal, or insurance advice. Decision Tree Insurance LLC doesn't sell or service ACA marketplace plans; enrollment is handled through HealthSherpa, an independent licensed marketplace. If you enroll through the link on this page, Decision Tree Insurance receives a referral fee — not a commission — which does not affect your premium or your eligibility for any tax credit. Subsidy figures, income thresholds, and HSA limits are for 2026 and change annually. For guidance on your own situation, talk to a qualified professional.