Insured in Colorado

I don’t have a sob story. My family is healthy; we’ve never been denied coverage. We are simply self-employed and want to stay that way. And paying for private, individual health insurance is an ongoing dilemma.

I wrote recently about my anticipation of finding a better deal on my state’s (Colorado’s) new health insurance exchange. On October 1, I went to the exchange site and started searching. It was decently designed and easy to use, but the first number that came up scared me: It was actually higher than my current premium of $569 a month (for a family deductible of $12,000).

Was I going to go through all of this and end up paying more? I guess I’m ill-informed, because it was only then I realized I was eligible for a subsidy: my family’s income is well below the threshold (400 percent of the poverty line).