Buying a health insurance policy for yourself and your family is essential because medical care is expensive, especially in the private sector. Hospitalization can burn a hole in your pocket and derail your finances. It will become even tough, if the person who brings in the money is now in a hospital bed. All this can be avoided by just paying a small annual premium which would lessen your stress in medical emergencies.
If both you and your spouse or domestic partner are looking for a new health insurance plan, you must look up health insurance quotes both together and separately to find the most affordable plan for you. Depending on the health insurance company, Arizona individual and family health insurance rates for couples can be based on the age of the youngest person on the policy and other factors.
The amount of medical expenses you want to be covered affect Arizona’s health insurance cost. Health insurance is available through three leading platforms in Arizona, i.e., 1)employer-provided insurance plans, 2) individual or family plans, and 3) government-assisted plans. These platforms contain extensive information to choose the appropriate plan for yourself.
Unless you qualify for government programs like Medicaid or Medicare, or if your employer provides medical coverage, you will have to enroll in a private plan through Arizona’s Health Insurance Marketplace. There are many plans to choose from across the different metal tiers, with varying costs. Plans with lower premiums typically cost more out of pocket when you need medical care, as they have higher deductibles and out-of-pocket maxes. To abreast yourself withhealth insurance detailse in Arizona, read this piece of information.
Benefits of health insurance
Having health insurance has many benefits. It protects you and your family from financial losses in the same way that home or car insurance does. Even if you are in good health, you never know when you might have an accident or get sick. A trip to the hospital can be much more costly than you might expect. Consider these facts:
- The average cost of a trip to the emergency room for an adult is about $700, not including any tests or hospitalization, which may increase the bill to well over $1,000.1
- A broken leg can cost up to $7,500.
- Average costs for childbirth are up to $8,800 and well over $10,000 for C-section delivery.1,2
- The total cost of a hip replacement can run a whopping $32,000.
- These examples sound scary, but the good news is that, with the right plan, you can protect yourself from most of these and other types of medical bills.
Benefits you need today
Your health is your most valued asset. With a good health insurance plan, you help protect your health and financial future and your family for a lifetime. With the new ways to get affordable health insurance, it makes sense to get covered. Other key benefits of health insurance are access to a network of doctors and hospitals and other resources to help you stay healthy. With health insurance, you will enjoy:
- Being able to find the help you need close to home
- Peace of mind and less worry because you know you’re covered
- Access to affordable care and health information to keep you healthy
10 essential health benefits
Here is a list of the 10 important health benefits and what they mean.
Prescription Drugs
The federal government has categorized approved prescription drugs. One from each category must be covered.
- Pediatric Services: This includes dental care, vision care, well-child visits, vaccinations, and immunizations. Dental and vision care must be offered to children through the age of 19 (pediatric oral health services can include two routine dental exams per year; ocular care can include one annual eye exam).
- Preventive and Wellness Services and Chronic Disease Management: This includes services such as diet counseling, colorectal cancer screening, Type 2 diabetes screenings, and immunization vaccines.
- Emergency Services: This is a trip to the emergency room where you truly need care as soon as possible. It means that you won’t be penalized if the hospital is out of network.
- Hospitalization: Treatment you receive in the hospital as part of inpatient care. Plans may limit coverage for extended stay.
- Mental Health and Addiction Services: This includes services to treat behavioral health, provide counseling, or provide psychotherapy.
- Pregnancy, Maternity, and Newborn Care: These are services that care for you and your baby before, during, and shortly after giving birth.
- Ambulatory Patient Services: This is outpatient care you receive without being admitted to the hospital.
- Laboratory Services: This includes testing to diagnose, to gauge effectiveness, and some preventive screenings.
- Rehabilitative and Habilitative Services and Devices: These services help you recover if you are injured, have a disability, or have a chronic condition. Services may include physical therapy, occupational therapy, or speech therapy.
What is the best health insurance in Arizona?
Arizona residents can buy cheap health insurance plans through the state marketplace, or low-income households may be eligible for coverage through Arizona’s Medicaid expansion. To help you find the best health insurance plan for your family, we evaluated all policies on the state exchange to find those with the lowest premiums.
Health insurance plans on the Arizona exchange are divided into metal tiers, which indicate the benefits you would receive from a policy and its out-of-pocket costs and premiums. To help you find a cheap health insurance plan for yourself, we compared all those listed on the Arizona marketplace and identified the most affordable policies in each metal tier. Let’s have an overview of top picks for cheap health insurance in Arizona.
Oscar
Oscar Insurance offers a range of HMO health plans in Arizona. Plans from Oscar are some of the cheapest in Arizona. Depending on your coverage needs, they offer plans in several tiers to get the mYousurance. The company provides a doctor on call at no extra charge, which allows you to make a call in the Oscar mobile app and speak to a board-certified doctor anytime, anywhere.
Blue cross blue shield of Arizona
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Arizona (BCBSAZ) is committed to helping Arizonans get healthier faster and stay healthier longer. With a focus on connecting people with the care they need, BCBSAZ offers health insurance and related services to more than 1.7 million customers. BCBSAZ, a not-for-profit company, is an independent licensee of the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association. The company, and its subsidiaries, employ more than 2,400 people in Phoenix, Chandler, Flagstaff, and Tucson.
BlueCross BlueShield of Arizona provides consumers with three main plans. It’s important to note that your location, age, gender, medical history, and other factors influence your payment options. Here are the 3 plans you can choose from.
It is great for patients who expect frequent visits to the doctor and take generic drugs. There are different deductibles that you can choose from and predictable costs. You will receive primary care, doctor visit co-payments, prescription drug copayments, and low deductibles.
It better fits people with health conditions to manage healthcare costs effectively. There are fixed copayment amounts for specialist visits, free visits for PCP, and payments for specific brand-name drugs. Deductibles are higher, but there are also more benefits that you can take advantage of.
incorporates online doctors and low-cost drugs, ensuring that you are healthy even in emergencies.
Cigna
Cigna has 3 metal-tier levels for their Arizona health insurance plans: Gold, Silver, and Bronze. Their Bronze plan is better for people who want low premiums and don’t go to the doctor that often. While out-of-pocket costs can be high, the low premiums make up for it. The Silver plan is right for families or individuals who frequently go to the doctor for accidents or illnesses. The premium costs are medium level, and so are out-of-pocket costs.
Lastly, the Gold plan is perfect for people who visit the doctor regularly and have multiple prescriptions for drugs. While premiums are high under this plan, there are low out-of-pocket costs to deal with. The company offers several cheap health insurance plans in Arizona. In addition to a large provider network, Cigna gives members access to several mobile apps. These apps help make it easier to manage your account and make healthy choices.
Ambetter from Arizona complete health
Ambetter plans from Arizona Complete Health give you a handful of plan options for cheap health insurance. The company also offers plenty of additional benefits if you enroll in an Ambetter plan. The My Health Pays rewards program allows you to earn cash for future purchases or services by making healthy choices. Your rewards can be redeemed for doctor’s visit copays, put toward your deductible, and even used to pay your monthly utility bills.
Bright health
If you live in Phoenix, you can take advantage of Bright Health insurance plans. The plans are cheap and give you access to Bright Health Rewards. This rewards program gives you cashback for healthy choices. When you enroll in a Bright Health plan, you’ll get a debit card that is loaded with your cash rewards. Anyone on your Bright Health plans, such as a spouse or children, can earn rewards for the family.
Health net of Arizona
Health Net of Arizona has different health insurance plans designed for specific groups of people. Here is an overview of their plans:
- Medi-Cal offers no-cost or low-cost dental and medical services for individuals and families. You have to qualify for the plan based on your income, but it can be an excellent plan for people who can’t afford to pay high premiums.
- Medicare has partnered with Health Net of Arizona to bring consumers subsidized plans, but they are designed only for seniors and individuals with disabilities.
- Family and individual plans are private plans that you can purchase according to your needs. They have different levels of premiums, deductibles, benefits, and out-of-pocket expenses.
- Small business health insurance plans have PPO, and HMO plans that you can take to give your employees health benefits.
- Large employer health plans are for large groups of people who can benefit from a shared plan under their employer.
Cheap health insurance Arizona
Arizona residents can buy cheap health insurance plans through the state marketplace. Low-income households may be eligible for coverage through Arizona’s Medicaid expansion. To help you find the best health insurance plan for your family, we evaluated all policies on the state exchange to find those with the lowest premiums.
Cheapest health insurance coverage by metal tier
Health insurance plans on the Arizona exchange are divided into metal tiers, which indicate the benefits you would receive from a policy and its out-of-pocket costs and premiums. To help you find a cheap health insurance plan for yourself, we compared all those listed on the Arizona marketplace and identified the most affordable policies in each metal tier. Not all of these health insurance policies are offered in every county, but we recommend using these to get a sense of the costs and benefits you can expect in each tier of coverage.
The actual cost of a health insurance policy will vary depending on your age in addition to the policy you choose and the number of people covered. As you can see below, a health insurance plan in Arizona is 22% cheaper for a 21-year-old than for a 40-year-old, which translates to an average savings of $125 per month for the average Silver plan. A 60-year-old, on the other hand, would end up paying $648 per month more than a 40-year-old for the same level of coverage.
Health insurance rate changes in Arizona
In Arizona, health insurance premiums, deductibles, and out-of-pocket maximums are determined yearly by the health providers. State and federal regulators then approve the changes. In 2022, most health insurance premiums increased on the Arizona health insurance exchange. The most significant increase was seen in Bronze tier plans, which grew by 30%. Meanwhile, average Catastrophic plan premiums decreased by 31%.
Average cost of health insurance by family size in Arizona
The cost of a health insurance plan in Arizona will vary depending on the size of your family, in addition to your age and the policy you choose. For example, the average price of a Silver health insurance plan in Arizona would be $690 more for a family of five than for a family of three.
Health insurance premiums are determined for each adult based upon their age, while children below 15 are priced at a flat rate. So, if you add your 40-year-old spouse to your health insurance plan, your premium would increase by an average of $577 per month in Arizona. But the cost of an average Silver health plan would only increase by $345 per child added to the policy.
Adults are assumed to be 40 years old. Children are considered to be 14 or younger. Sample rates are based on Arizona’s average cost for a Silver plan.
Free health insurance Arizona
Arizona follows federal law, the Affordable Care Act, in requiring residents to have a minimum level of health insurance coverage. A number of Arizona people may find the health insurance marketplace convenient for purchasing affordable insurance. In some special cases, the Affordable Care Act may provide free health insurance to the residents of Arizona. Many Arizona residents qualify for financial assistance to get private medical insurance under Obamacare. You could even get free or low-cost health insurance in Arizona through public programs like Medicaid.
Arizona health insurance facts
- Arizonans paid an average premium of $219 a month for an ACA plan after federal subsidies.
- 155,000 signed up for an ACA plan in 2021.
- 4 million enrolled in Original Medicare or Medicare Advantage in 2020.
- Six companies offer individual and family plans on the health insurance marketplace.
Due to the high cost of health insurance, a number of people with low income do not get health insurance. But like most states, Arizona experienced a rise in the number of insured residents with the passing of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) also called Obamacare. Back in 2013 when the first open enrollment in the Health Insurance Marketplace began, Arizona had 1.1 million uninsured residents. By 2016, that number dropped to 681,000–resulting in a 39.1 percent decrease in Arizona’s uninsured population.
Arizona’s uninsured population is now at 11 percent (as of 2019), which is slightly higher than the U.S. average of 9 percent.2
Another way the ACA has helped Arizona residents is through Medicaid expansion. In 2014, Arizona accepted federal funding to expand its Medicaid program to people with incomes up to 138 percent of the federal poverty level (FPL). Because of the expansion, 432,100 more adults have access to low-cost or free health insurance through the state’s Medicaid program known as the Arizona Health Care Cost Containment System (AHCCCS).
Why are there still 800,000 people uninsured in Arizona when no- and low-cost options exist?
Despite Arizona’s strong economic growth, Arizona ranks among the worst states for the number of adults and children with health insurance. The statistics don’t demonstrate the adverse effects of going without health coverage. Uninsured people are more likely to forgo necessary medical services, are at higher risk for preventable hospitalizations, are less likely to receive follow-up care, and experience significantly higher mortality rates than the insured.
But it’s not just the individuals without insurance who are affected. Many of them end up in the ER for concerns that could be addressed by a family doctor, draining valuable resources from hospitals already overwhelmed by staff shortages and supply chain problems. Everyone’s care suffers as a result and these costs ultimately get passed to others through higher premiums and higher taxes.
To help resolve some of these issues, Congress passed the Affordable Care Act in 2010, which created Health Exchanges like the one used by Arizonans at healthcare.gov. The ACA was designed to expand access to affordable coverage for people who qualify, including those without coverage from an employer. It also extended subsidies or premium discounts to many Americans and expanded Medicaid eligibility in some states. Over the past decade, these efforts have reduced the number of uninsured Americans by 50%.
Many traditionally underserved groups have high uninsured rates, including Hispanic, Black and low-income individuals. This is noteworthy since more than 60% of uninsured Arizonans are Hispanic. This population is less likely than others to receive coverage via an employer, despite being in the workforce at higher rates than non-Hispanic individuals.
Conclusion
Health insurance is extremely important when you meet unfortunate accidents and can not afford medical expenses. The state marketplace offers cheap or no-cost health insurance plans to those who have low income. The average cost of health insurance in the state of Arizona is $6,215 per person based on the most recently published data. For a family of four, this translates to $24,860. This is $766 per person below the national average for health insurance coverage. However, health insurance costs vary significantly based on the cost of care and the population insured.
