Open Enrollment opens
58d07h55m39s
. Coverage for next year goes on sale November 1. Until then you need a qualifying life event.
CoverBridge runs the premium tax credit with the same math the Marketplace uses, then shows you every plan it applies to.
400%
of poverty level
One dollar over and the premium tax credit goes to zero. For an older couple that can cost more than the raise did.
Read more250%
of poverty level
Under this line a Silver plan quietly upgrades itself. Above it, Silver is just Silver.
Read more3:1
age rating band
A 64 year old can be charged at most three times a 21 year old for the same plan. That ratio is the law.
Read more60
days
Most qualifying life events open exactly sixty days. Losing coverage opens sixty days before it ends, too.
Read moreWhere the money goes missing
None of these are edge cases. Each one shows up in a meaningful share of the files we open, and each one is invisible if you sort plans by monthly premium.
Insurers load the cost of cost-sharing reductions onto Silver premiums, because Silver is the only tier they attach to. That inflates the benchmark and therefore everyone credit, while Gold premiums stay flat. Compare after the credit or you will buy the wrong plan.
How silver loading works
Under 150% of the poverty level a Silver plan behaves like a 94% actuarial value plan. People shopping on premium alone buy Bronze and never see it.
Read the definition
Moving counties, leaving a job, turning 26, a birth. Each opens a sixty-day window, and the clock starts whether or not anyone tells you.
Check your eventMost people stall in the same three places. The flow below is built around those three places.
Household size, ages, ZIP code and whether anyone has other coverage available to them.
Household means your tax household, not the people in your home. A roommate is not in it and a child you claim who lives elsewhere is.
Your best estimate of annual household income, built from the sources the Marketplace actually accepts.
For self-employed applicants this is net profit after business expenses, not gross receipts. Getting this right is what prevents a repayment bill in April.
Every plan in your county, ranked by total annual cost after the credit rather than by premium.
This is where silver loading shows up, where cost-sharing reductions appear, and where an HSA-eligible plan gets credited for its tax value.
Verify each provider and each prescription against the specific plan, by name, for the coming plan year.
Networks are county-specific and change annually. A carrier you recognise nationally can have a narrow network on your street.
Submit, resolve any data-matching issues, pay the first premium, and get the effective date in writing.
Coverage does not begin until the first premium clears. We confirm with the carrier rather than assuming the application status page is telling the truth.
The tier describes how the bill is split, not the quality of care or the size of the network. A Bronze and a Platinum plan from the same carrier can share an identical doctor list.
| Tier | Plan pays | Typical deductible | Out-of-pocket max | Who it suits |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Bronze | 60% | $7,100 | $9,200 | Lowest monthly premium, highest deductible. Built for people who mostly need protection against a catastrophe. |
| Silver | 70% | $4,800 | $8,100 | The benchmark tier, and the only one that unlocks cost-sharing reductions if you earn under 250% of the poverty level. |
| Gold | 80% | $1,600 | $6,400 | Higher premium, much lower deductible. Often the right answer if you take regular medication or expect a procedure. |
| Platinum | 90% | $400 | $3,600 | Highest premium, lowest out-of-pocket costs. Worth modelling if you have a chronic condition or a planned surgery. |
What we do
Marketplace plans cost the same wherever you buy them, because the commission is already inside the premium. That means we have nothing to sell you and no reason to steer you.
All servicesMissed credits, silver loading, and a life event nobody told them about. Demo testimonials, written to match the cases we actually see.
I had been paying full price for two years because I assumed I earned too much. The calculator found a credit worth $317 a month.
They caught that my Gold plan was cheaper than the Silver one after the credit. Nobody had ever explained silver loading to me.
My income jumped in August. CoverBridge reported the change so I did not owe eleven hundred dollars back in April.
The data-matching notice made no sense to me. Someone stayed on the phone and got the document accepted the same week.
I left a job in March and had no idea a Special Enrollment Period existed. The checker gave me the exact date I had to file by.
Our daughter needed a specialist twice a month. They modelled the full year and the Platinum plan was genuinely the cheaper choice.
The comparison flagged that my oncologist was leaving the HMO network in January. I would not have found that until it was too late.
No hold music, no sales pitch, no upsell to a short-term plan that would not have covered my medication.
I run a two-person studio. Getting both of us on-exchange took one afternoon instead of the week I had budgeted.
Start with the number. If the number works, keep going. If it does not, we will tell you what to do instead, including the times when the answer is Medicaid rather than us.
