Why your premium doubled
Four ordinary explanations, in the order we usually find them — and what can be done about each.
By Meg Quillen, Cedar Landing Benefits
A premium that jumps sharply feels like a mistake, and occasionally it is. More often it is one of four things, and three of them can be fixed in an afternoon.
We work through them in this order.
One: your income estimate changed
If the Marketplace has a higher income on file than before — because you updated it, or because it pulled tax data — your advance credit falls and your share rises. This is the commonest cause by a distance, and it is the easiest to check.
Log in and read the income figure the application is using. If it no longer matches reality, correct it and the monthly amount is recalculated.
Two: your plan was automatically re-enrolled
If your old plan was discontinued, you were probably moved to whatever the insurer considered the nearest equivalent. Nearest equivalents are frequently dearer, and occasionally sit in a different metal level altogether.
Three: the benchmark plan in your county changed, which moves everyone's credit even when their income did not. Four: someone left the household, or a birthday moved you into a new age band.
What to do
Check the income on file first, then check which plan you are actually in. Between those two, most doubled premiums are explained. If neither applies, the county benchmark has moved and it is time to compare plans again rather than argue with the arithmetic.
Do it during the enrolment window if you can. Outside it, you need a qualifying life event to change plans, however unreasonable the new premium feels.
An estimate for planning, not a quote. Medicare and the Marketplace set your real figures.
Have a question this raised?
General writing only goes so far. Your doctors, your medication list and your dates decide what the right answer is for you.
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