If you are looking to purchase health insurance in Delaware, you can find cheap individual policies on the state insurance exchange. The my Blue Access PPO Silver 3250 HSA is the cheapest Silver plan available across the state.

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware is the only insurance provider in the state, but the company does offer a variety of policies, which allows you the flexibility to choose a plan that fits your financial situation.

Delaware has also passed the expanded version of Medicaid, which is available if your income falls at or below 138% of the federal poverty level.

Cheapest health insurance by plan tier

Health insurance in Delaware is broken down into five different plan tiers: Catastrophic, Bronze Expanded, Silver, Gold and Platinum. We compared all the policies available in each tier and identified cheap health insurance options available to you. The table below provides the cheapest plan at each level of coverage, along with the deductible, out-of-pocket maximum and monthly cost for a 40-year-old.

A policyholder's age will affect the premium the most when trying to purchase a health policy. As you can see in the graph below, for all plan tiers, the average cost of a health plan increases significantly with age. For example, a Gold health insurance plan costs $121 more per month for a 40-year-old compared to a 21-year-old, whereas 60-year-olds pay $624 more on average than 40-year-olds.

Finding the best health insurance coverage in Delaware

Costs are not the only aspects of health insurance policies that you should consider. Cost sharing, such as deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, are also just as important to evaluate before purchasing a health plan.

In Delaware, the best health insurance coverage tier will primarily depend on your level of income and expected medical costs. Households and families with higher medical costs should lean toward policies with lower deductibles, while healthier individuals could opt for cheaper plans.

Catastrophic and Expanded Bronze plans: Best for healthy individuals

Bronze and Catastrophic plans are the cheapest health policies offered on the Delaware exchange. But these plans have large deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, which can be expensive if you use medical services throughout the year.

For this reason, we only recommend Bronze Expanded and Catastrophic plans if you are very healthy and do not need routine medical care. Catastrophic plans are also only available if you are under the age of 30 or have received a hardship exemption. Catastrophic plans are not eligible for premium tax credits.

The cheapest Catastrophic plan in Delaware is the my Blue Access Major Events PPO 8700 - 3 Free PCP Visits. The cheapest Bronze Expanded plan is the my Blue Access PPO Bronze 3800. Compare all tiers in Delaware above.

Silver plans: Average premiums and deductibles

Silver metal tier health plans are good policies for beginning your health insurance search because of their modest premiums and deductibles. These plans are generally used as benchmarks for the other exchange health policies and are a middle ground between Bronze and Gold tiers.

The cheapest Silver health insurance policy in Kent, New Castle and Sussex counties is the my Blue Access PPO Silver 3250 HSA plan. To help you find the best health plan for your needs, we listed below each Silver policy available in Delaware, along with cost-sharing features and average premiums for a 40-year-old.

Silver plans are the only health insurance policies in Delaware that are eligible for cost-sharing reductions, making them a good option for low-income households. These reductions further decrease the amount of the copays, coinsurance and deductibles but are only available if your household income falls below 250% of the federal poverty level.

All Silver plans in Delaware are PPOs, which offer some flexibility with covering out-of-network services.

Gold and Platinum plans: High premiums but smaller deductibles

Gold and Platinum health insurance plans typically have the highest premiums across all metal tiers but are great policies if you expect to have large or frequent medical expenses. This is due to a low deductible, which allows coverage to begin sooner.

For example, the my Blue Access PPO Gold 0 plan has a deductible of $0, while the my Blue Access PPO Bronze 3800 Bronze Expanded plan has a deductible of $3,800. The lower deductible is met faster with Gold and Platinum plans, which allows access to the cost-sharing benefits more quickly.

The cheapest Gold plan in Delaware is the my Blue Access PPO Gold 0. The cheapest Platinum plan is the my Blue Access PPO Platinum 0. Compare all tiers in Delaware above.

Health insurance rate changes in Delaware

Health insurance in Delaware is regulated through the state and federal health insurance exchange. Annually, insurance providers will adjust their plans' premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, which are then approved for the following plan year.

For 2022, health insurance premiums for all plan tiers in Delaware increased from 2021. Bronze Expanded rates rose the most, with policies costing 6% more for 2022 compared to 2021.

Health insurance companies in Delaware

Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield Delaware is the only health insurance company on the Delaware state exchange. This does limit the number of options for residents, but Highmark offers multiple policies within some metal tiers. For instance, it offers three Silver metal tier health plans: Shared Cost Blue EPO Silver 2900, my Blue Access PPO Silver 2900 + Adult Dental and Vision and my Blue Access PPO Silver 3250 HSA. These options provide some flexibility for you when you search for health insurance.

Average cost of health insurance by family size in Delaware

Health insurance costs are very dependent on the number of people insured under the policy, as well as their ages.

For example, a standard adult costs $555 per month to insure, while the cost of a child increases the typical policy by $332 per month. By extension, the cost of a three-person family is $1,442, and that of a four-person family is $1,774 per month.

Methodology

Health insurance rates and plans in Delaware were downloaded from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) government website. Using the premiums for each policy, ValuePenguin calculated average values for a variety of factors, including metal tier, family size and county. Plans and providers for which county-level data was included in the CMS Crosswalk file were used in our analysis; those excluded from this dataset may not appear.