f you aren’t eligible for employer-sponsored health insurance for 2021, start preparing to shop for an Affordable Care Act (aka Obamacare) Marketplace plan. Open enrollment ends December 15 unless you qualify for a Special Enrollment Period due to a life event such as losing health coverage or moving or your state has a longer time frame, as California, Colorado, New Jersey and Pennsylvania do.

It’s particularly important to compare your options this year.

Not only has the pandemic changed so much in 2020, you may have many more Affordable Care Act (ACA) coverage choices now since some health insurers are entering or re-entering the market or expanding their coverage areas. Insurers have discovered that the individual health insurance marketplace is profitable.

“In about a dozen states, we’ve seen an in-migration of insurers,” says Karen Pollitz, senior fellow with the Kaiser Family Foundation. “The plan choices in some areas are huge.”

For example, there are more than 120 Marketplace plans offered by six insurers in Miami; 65 plans by six in Phoenix and 70 by six insurers in Cleveland, Pollitz notes.

The 4 types of marketplace health plans

If you lost your job or retired before age 65 the year, you may qualify for a substantial subsidy to reduce your health insurance premiums on a Marketplace plan for 2021.

Average premiums are down about 2% across the U.S., says Pollitz. “But it depends on where you live,” she adds. “In places like North Dakota, the premiums are going up a lot.”

Marketplace plans fall into four categories: Bronze, Silver, Gold and Platinum. Bronze plans tend to have lower premiums but higher deductibles and copayments; Gold and Platinum plans tend to have higher premiums but lower out-of-pocket costs. And Silver plans have monthly payments that are lower than Gold plans but higher than Bronze ones.