The annual open enrollment period for health insurance through the individual marketplace starts Friday. And Granite Staters who get their coverage that way will have more plans to choose from this year, thanks to another insurer entering the market. The New Hampshire Insurance Department said Friday that WellSense will start offering insurance on the healthcare.
gov marketplace, joining the three other companies — Anthem, Ambetter and Harvard Pilgrim – already doing so in the state. The marketplace offers federally subsidized health insurance to people who don’t have coverage through their job. Congress increased those subsidies during the pandemic, and that remains in effect for 2025.
Most people should be able to find an affordable plan because of those subsidies, said Peter Ames, the executive director of the Foundation for Healthy Communities. The foundation runs a free program, New Hampshire Navigator, that assists people with the process of finding insurance. “We've heard from consumers in years past that they're often surprised that they're eligible for a lot of these tax credits,” Ames said.
“So it's always worth a look to find out what you may be eligible for.” New Hampshire also has the country’s lowest average premiums for marketplace plans , according to an analysis by the health policy organization KFF – something touted by state insurance commissioner D.J.
Bettencourt in a news release Friday. “Our individual market premiums remain the lowest.