A guide to buying individual health insurance in the United States in 2025: plans and costs, government subsidies, insurance companies and purchasing channels

Key points of health insurance in 2025

California has mandatory health insurance requirements: Originally, Obamacare would punish people who did not have health insurance, but in 2019, the Trump administration abolished the penalty system and no longer forced people to buy health insurance, but state governments can still maintain their own policy implementation direction. Since 2020, California has passed a bill to restore mandatory insurance. In other words, everyone in California must have health insurance , otherwise they will face fines when filing state taxes . The fine amount is $900/year for each adult and $450/year for children 18 and under. When filing taxes in 2025, the official will use the 2024 household income data as the basis and impose fines.

California health insurance registration time is slightly longer: Covered California’s Open Enrollment registration time starts from 2024/11/1 (Wednesday) to 2024/12/15 (Friday), and insurance can only be effective on 2025/1/1. If you don’t have time to register during this period, California can extend the registration to 2025/1/31 (Wednesday), but the effective time will be delayed. If you miss it again, you can only register and purchase health insurance during the Special Enrollment Period (SEP) if you meet special circumstances.

More health insurance companies will participate in Covered California: In 2025, the insurance options in Covered California will be further expanded. All California residents will have at least two insurance companies to choose from, 92% of residents will have three insurance companies, and more than 85% of residents will even have four or more insurance companies to choose from. This growth is mainly due to the increase in the number of insurance companies and the expansion of regional coverage. For example, Kaiser Permanente will provide services in parts of Monterey County and is expected to cover about half of the insured people in the area. At the same time, companies such as Aetna CVS Health and Anthem Blue Cross have also proposed varying degrees of premium increases, up to 15.4%.

Covered California premium increases are under control: The average premium increase for California health insurance in 2024 is 9.6%, but due to the impact of the epidemic, inflation and rising costs, the average premium increase for California health insurance in 2025 has dropped to 7.9%. However, looking at the longer time span, the average increase in the five years from 2021 to 2025 is about 5%.