Healthcare Marketplace plan quality changes based on income?
I am currently going through my annual hell of shopping for a plan on Healthcare.gov, and I have noticed something that I frankly find to be flabbergasting.
Without publicizing the exact number, my income has increased 5% (less than inflation) from last year, but it appears to have crossed some kind of important threshold according to the Marketplace. (It did happen to cross a round $x,000 level).
Obviously it is to be expected that, with a higher income, my healthcare subsidy will be reduced. I’m even okay with the idea that it might be reduced more than the 5% that my income increased. However, I have also noticed that the plans that are available to me have SIGNIFICANTLY worse quality. Specifically, the deductibles and OOP maxes have all skyrocketed! For example, for the plan that Healthcare.gov says is the “plan you picked before” (supposedly the same one I have this year), the deductible is 4.3x and the OOP max is 2.4x the levels I have this year.
Out of curiosity, I went back and changed my income to last year’s number, and lo and behold, the deductibles and OOP maxes were back to the same levels that were available to me last year. I’ll remind you that my income only increased from last year by 5%…it seems insane (and INCREDIBLY FRUSTRATING) to me that the available deductibles and OOP maxes would quadruple and nearly triple, respectively, for a 5% increase in income. In fact, I don’t even understand why they are increasing at all. Shouldn’t the level of deductible and OOP max be a function of the premium one pays and their health status, not income?
Just to reiterate, these aren’t comparing apples and oranges. It is not as if I have a Silver plan and I’m comparing it to Bronze plans this year. It’s the same plan. This year my total premium (i.e. what I pay + my subsidy) is $457.61/month. The total premium for the plan for 2023 that Healthcare.gov says is the “plan you picked before” is actually higher(!) at $537.38/month. And yet, the deductible is quadruple and the OOP max is nearly triple! Furthermore, there literally are ZERO plans (even Gold) that have an OOP max that is the same or lower than what I have this year.
Again, I perfectly understand and am okay with the subsidy being reduced when I’m making more income. However, can anyone please explain to me why the quality of the plans changes so dramatically with income? In my head, this makes no sense!
Edit: per the stickied comment my age is 39…will be 40 next year and my zip code is 74119. I prefer not to publicize my income.
Thank you in advance for any who may help me understand this issue.
