Fortune 500 to small business—sticker shock with health insurance?

Hi there,

I’m looking for some advice on health benefits from a new job offer if you have any thoughts!

I’m a single young professional with no kids who bounced around from years in retail and the service industry to eventually land a more traditional 9-5 at a very large corporation a couple of years ago. My company offered several tiers of insurance and since I’m healthy, only visit for check ups and have one prescription, I’ve always opted for the lowest tier with a high deductible because I’ve never needed much. My premium was about $120/month, for a total of ~$1,344 a year on a United EPO plan, on a $60k salary.

I’ve been offered an exciting job with a very small business. I’m so lucky in that my salary is taking a nice increase ($85k), but I have to confess, I got sticker shock when I reviewed their healthcare plan! It’s a BCBS Silver plan, and it costs $400/month—the employers cover some of it and said they’d be able to actually offer me an additional $7k in salary if I didn’t need health insurance. I know with the salary bump I can afford it, but I seriously just have sticker shock at that price!

I checked my state’s ACA plans and there are some bronze ones I’d be eligible that are literally half the cost. But, obviously I know there are deductible benefits and tax things to consider. Am I foolish for even considering the ACA plan to save some $$? I’m woefully ignorant of health insurance lore and while I’m researching, I figured I’d ask this community for help!

TLDR: New job’s insurance is 3.5x the cost of old one—should I opt out and do ACA to save money?