With open enrollment underway, millions of people can purchase health insurance through the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Affordab🦄le Care๊ Act (ACA) Marketplace for $10 per month or less, according to the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services.

Your premiums could be this low thanks to subsidies in the form of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:premium tax credits. While 92% of shoppers qualified for a tax credit in 2024, whether you’re eligible and how big your tax credit could be depends on your household income. Other types of subsidies could lower your costs when you♏ receive care.

Let’s look at what the premium tax credit is, how to apply for it whꦺen you’re shopping for an Obamacare health insurance plan, and how much you can expect to receive.

Apply for Premium Tax Credits to Save Monthly

When you’re shopping for a health insurance plan, the premiums you see aren’t necessarily what you’ll end up paying. With 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:premiums increasing by 4% for 2025, it’s important to understand how premium tax crജedits can dramatically lower your costs.

What Is the Premium Tax Credit?

The premium tax credit reduces your tax obligation by a certain amount, calculated based on how much of your household income will be used to pay your monthly premiums. It’s a♎lso refundable, meaning that if the credit amount exceeds what you owe in taxes, you can still receive the excess as part of your tax refund.

You’ll have the option to pay your health insurance premiums out of pocket and claim the premium tax credit when you file your tax return in the future, or to receive an 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:advance premium tax credit (APTC) that lowers your insurance🗹♉ premiums throughout the year.

The amount of the premium tax credit you’re eligible for is determined by the degree to which your household income falls within the federal poverty level guidelines. Prior to 2021, only household incomes that exceeded 100% of the poverty line but were lower than 400% of the poverty line were eligible.🍬

That changed with the signing of the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:American Rescue Plan in March 2021, which removed income limits and capped healtꦐh insurance marketplace premiums at 8.50% of income.

According to the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Centers for Medicare and Medicai🐻d S🌠ervices (CMS), in plan year 2024, almost 75% of enrollees who selected the lowest-cost plan in their chosen metal level paid $10 or less after receiving the APTC. CMS expects roughly the same number of enrollees to pay that amount in plan year 2025.

These enhanced subsidies were extended through 2025 by the 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:Inflation Reduction Act. Howeve♑r, the expanded benefits could expire in 2026 if Congress doesn’t extend them again. 

What Information Do You Need to Apply?

You can apply for health insurance coverage on or, if your state runs its own marketplace, on your state’s site. To determine your eligibility for the premium tax credit, you’ll need to enter your household size and income information duri🥂ng the application process.  

You’ll likely have to verify a lot of information, too, such a🔥s your Social Security number, sources of income, and current health insurance♔ coverage for each family member. In some cases, you may need to submit documents such as prior tax returns.

You should get an estimate of how much you qualify for before you complete the application process. If you select the APTC, it will be applied to the premiums of the health care🌄 plan you choose as you’re scrolling through your options.

What Happens After You Apply?

Once you apply, your application will be pending until it can be reviewed by the departm༒ent that runs the exchange you applied through, whether it’s state or federal. After approval, you’ll need to pay your first premium. If the insurer you selected allows you to pay online, you can do so by g🎃oing through your federal or state marketplace account, which may redirect you to the insurer’s own payment portal.

Keep in mind that any changes in your income during the year could affect how much of the APTC you can claim, so when you file your tax return, you may need to reconcile the amount you received in subsidies against what you should have received based on the income you actually earned.💦 If your income was more than you estimated for the plan year, you may need to pay back some of the credit; but if your income fell, you might be eligible to file for additional premium tax credits, whi🌠ch you’ll receive as part of your tax refund.

Check Your Eligibility for the 2025 Premi👍um Tax Credit

To check your eligibility for the 2025 premium tax credit, the IRS offers . You’ll need to enter your household size, adjusted gross income for yoꦚurself and any dependents, and each family member’s health insurance status.

Choose a Si🍎lver Plan for More Possible Subsidies

Although you can use your tax credit on any kind of plan you want, if you choose a silver marketplace plan, you may be eligible for a 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:cost-sharing reduction, which can help lower your out-of-pocket costs.

That means you could pay a lower 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:deductible, 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:copay, or coinsurance when you receive care. Some plans also offer lower 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩网:out-of-pocket maximums. These savings are applied when you use your health insurance to pay for a covered medical𝐆 service, such as paying for a procedure or v𒅌isiting the doctor.

Note that cost-sharing reductions only apply to households with income between 100% and 250% of the federal poverty line.

Federal Poverty Guidelines for 2025

The federal poverty guidelines determine how much your family is eligible for in health insurance premium subsidies.❀ The guidelines are adjusted each year to account for inflation.

The table shows how various levels of 澳洲幸运5官方开奖结果体彩🌼网:modified adjusted gross incom♒e (MAGI) correspond to the federal poverty guidelines based on the number of people in the household. So, for instance, if your MAGI is $15,060 and you live alone, you’re at 100% of the federal poverty level (FPL). If your MAGI is $60,240, you earn four times the FPL.

Check for State Subsidies

According to KFF, nine states offer their own health insurance subsidies: California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Jersey, New Mexico, Vermont, and Washington. New York is also adding enhanced state subsidies to its marketplace for 2025.

Most of these subsidies are more robust versions of those offered by the federal marketplace. For example, California’s cost-sharing reduction program for silver plans vastly increases savings for households making under 250% of the federal poverty line by reducing deductibles and copays by hundreds or thousands of dollars. 

Massachusetts’ enhanced subsidies program offers cost-sharing reductions to households earning up to 300%  of the federal poverty line, greatly increasing eligibility for its ConnectorCare program, which allows 193,000 households to pay as little as $0 in copays and deductibles.