Which State Should I Get Health Insurance

[jschaefs]

I need to pick a health insurance plan in the Healthcare.gov marketplace for 2018. I will be splitting my time between Utah and Nevada. I work part-time in Utah for an employer (W-2 income) and part-time in Nevada where I have my own consulting business (self-employed 1099 income). I'm curious what my best option is for attaining coverage in 2018. I have a mailing address in both locations and the consulting business is licensed in Nevada.

Looking forward to your thoughts/suggestions. Thanks in advance Mustachians!

[jpdx]

Where are you establishing residency for income tax purposes?

Options for health care vary a lot geographically, in terms of quality and cost. For the ACA, your insurance options are based on your county, so keep that in mind. Some counties have more options for insurance carriers, and more robust networks with more providers and lower cost. So you may want to do some homework and see what your options are in either location. Generally, there is more competition and more providers in populated states/counties vs rural counties. Wherever you settle, make sure there is an option for a travel network so you can get emergency care when you are out of the network area.

[FernFree]

I'm curious how this works out for you because I might be in the same situation next year.  I read an article about this a couple of weeks ago and it said that there is a lot of variance between plans for how they cover healthcare when you are out of the core area.  I also recall that it said that Texas and Arizona do not have any plans that offer national coverage during travel aside from emergencies, but don't recall if it mentioned Utah or New York.

Suggest you run both locations through the web to compare costs and benefits/limitations.  You may also be able to switch plans when you change location, but that seems like a lot of hassle.

Good luck!

[pmac]

It will even vary among zip codes within the same state, by quite a bit.