Best Health Insurance Marketplaces
HealthCare.gov, or your own state’s exchange if it runs one, is the default for nearly everyone: it is the only place that guarantees your premium tax credit applies and never hides part of the plan list behind an agent’s preferred carriers. Choose a broker like eHealth only if you specifically want a person on the phone, and use HealthMarkets or GoHealth if you also want to shop supplemental coverage such as dental, vision or Medicare products in the same conversation.
Best Health Insurance Marketplaces
Nothing we can price
None of these carry the figures needed to rank them for your situation yet.
Compared side by side
4 compared on the 3 things that decide it. A blank cell means we could not confirm the answer, not that the answer is no.
| Provider | Plan source | Subsidy handling | Agent support |
|---|---|---|---|
| HealthCare.gov Best overall, and the right first stop | — | — | — |
| eHealth Best for a licensed agent on the phone | — | — | — |
| HealthMarkets Best for bundling supplemental coverage | — | — | — |
| GoHealth Best for households comparing ACA and Medicare together | — | — | — |
Every offer, priced the same way
Ranked by what it costs you over a year. The arithmetic behind each figure is shown so you can check it. Offers we could not price are listed at the bottom with the reason.
1. HealthCare.gov — Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services
Best overall, and the right first stop
The only channel that reliably applies your premium tax credit automatically and lists every ACA plan sold in your county, not a curated slice of them.
Priced from national figures.
2. eHealth — eHealthInsurance Services
Best for a licensed agent on the phone
Useful if you want a person to compare ACA and off-marketplace options with you, though you should confirm any subsidy carries over correctly before you enroll.
Priced from national figures.
3. HealthMarkets — HealthMarkets Insurance Agency
Best for bundling supplemental coverage
Its agents can shop dental, vision and short-term policies alongside an ACA plan in one call, which the public marketplace does not do.
Priced from national figures.
4. GoHealth — GoHealth
Best for households comparing ACA and Medicare together
Built primarily around Medicare shoppers, which makes it a fit if your household is weighing ACA and Medicare coverage side by side.
Priced from national figures.
How we ranked these
We rank these channels on whether they display the complete set of ACA marketplace plans sold in your area, whether premium tax credits and cost-sharing reductions are applied automatically rather than left for you to claim later, the quality of the plan-comparison tools, and whether an agent is restricted to a limited slate of carriers. The public marketplace is never displaced from the top spot by what an advertiser pays this site.