A variety of factors will influence your health insurance costs in Texas. These include your age, your tobacco use, if you’re enrolling as an individual or family, which metal tier you choose, and whether you qualify for the premium tax credit. For example, older folks can pay up to three times as much for health insurance as younger people, and insurers are allowed to charge smokers up to 50% more for the same plan. Shop around to find the cheapest health insurance for your situation.

You can get health insurance in Texas through your employer, by purchasing an individual or family plan on the healthcare.gov marketplace, or by using the Small Business Health Insurance Options Program if you need small business health insurance. When using healthcare.gov, be sure to enter details about your household and your income to see if you qualify for the premium tax credit.

Open enrollment for health insurance in Texas begins November 1. To get a health insurance plan starting in January of 2023, you’ll need to enroll by December 15. If you enroll after that, you’ll have until January 15 to get coverage for February. To be eligible to use the marketplace, you’ll just need to live in and be legally present in the United States and not incarcerated.

The premium tax credit is designed to reduce monthly health insurance costs for people whose income is between 100% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Your expected contribution is based on your income, and your tax credit will equal the difference between a silver plan premium and your expected contribution. You can apply the tax credit to any marketplace health insurance plan that isn’t a catastrophic plan. And you can either use it in advance or claim it at the end of the year.