Best Cheap Health Insurance in Arizona 2023

The average cost of health insurance in Arizona is $569 per month. Arizona residents can buy cheap health insurance plans through the state marketplace, or low-income households may be eligible for coverage through Medicaid. To help you find the best health insurance plan for your family, we evaluated all policies on the state exchange to find those with the lowest monthly cost.

Cheapest health insurance coverage in Arizona

Blue AdvanceHealth Silver is the cheapest Silver insurance plan in Arizona, providing a moderate amount of coverage for rates as low as $365 per month.

Health insurance plans on the Arizona exchange are divided into metal tiers, which show the benefits you would get from a policy. To help you find a cheap health insurance plan for yourself, we identified the most affordable policies in each tier on the Arizona marketplace.

Not all of these health insurance policies are offered everywhere in the state, but we recommend using these to get a sense of the costs and benefits you can expect.

The actual cost of a health insurance policy will vary depending on your age, the policy you choose and the number of people covered. The cost of a health insurance plan in Arizona is 28% cheaper for a 21-year-old than for a 40-year-old, which translates to an average savings of $124 per month for the average Silver plan. A 60-year-old, on the other hand, would end up paying $639 more per month than a 40-year-old for the same level of coverage.

Finding your best health insurance coverage in Arizona

Where you live, your household income and your expected medical expenses will all help determine the best cheap health insurance plan for you available through the Arizona marketplace. Different health plans are available in different counties, and plans may have different rates depending on the location. For example, a Tucson resident would have different coverage options than someone who lives in Albuquerque.

Gold plans: Best if you have high expected medical costs

Health Net Clear Select Gold is the cheapest Gold plan in Arizona.

Though Gold health insurance policies have the highest monthly costs — on average, they're almost 24% more expensive than Silver plans in Arizona — you'll pay a smaller portion of your medical expenses. This makes them the best health insurance option if you need ongoing medical care or expect to have large costs such as surgery or maternity care.

If you have ongoing prescription needs, for instance, you'll likely find that Gold plans have the most affordable out-of-pocket expenses for drugs.

Silver plans: Best for average medical costs or people with low income

Blue AdvanceHealth Silver is the cheapest Silver plan in Arizona.

Silver policies are a good middle ground between Gold and Bronze plans, and they balance a modest monthly cost with how much you pay for medical services. This means they're an affordable option for most people.

Plus, if you have a lower income, Silver plans are eligible for subsidies, which further reduce your medical costs. In these cases, a Silver plan is an especially good deal.

Bronze and Catastrophic plans: Best for healthy people with low expected medical costs

UnitedHealthcare Bronze Essential is the cheapest Bronze plan in Arizona. Oscar Secure is the cheapest Catastrophic plan.

Catastrophic plans are only available to people under the age of 30 or for those who meet certain requirements, but we only recommend these policies for people who are fairly young and healthy. Similarly, a Bronze plan will likely be the best cheap health insurance policy if you have low expected medical costs and are able to pay the high out-of-pocket expenses in the event that you need medical care.

Bronze and Catastrophic policies have the lowest prices. However, the trade-off is paying more for medical care when you need it because plans have higher deductibles and copays than Silver or Gold plans.

Short-term health insurance in Arizona

You can buy short-term health insurance in Arizona. Federal regulations allow short-term health insurance to last up to 12 months or 364 days per term, with renewals up to a total duration of three years. Arizona follows federal regulations with respect to short-term health insurance term limits.

Most short-term plans do not cover essential benefits, including maternity, mental health and prescription drug coverage. For this reason, they are not qualified Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans and are not offered on the state marketplace. It can be useful to consider short-term health insurance if you are looking for a more affordable option for health coverage or missed open enrollment.

Best cheap health insurance companies in Arizona

It's also the only insurer available across the entire state. The seven health insurance companies that sell plans on the Arizona health exchange for 2023 are:

Cheapest health insurance plan by county

The lowest-cost health plan and its price will vary based on the region where you live. Blue AdvanceHealth Silver is often the cheapest plan. However, in Phoenix, Oscar Silver Simple is the cheapest plan.

To help you find the best health insurance plan where you live, we identified the cheapest Silver policies in each county below.

Average cost of health insurance by family size in Arizona

The average cost of health insurance for a family of four is $1,819 per month. However, costs will vary depending on the size of your family, your age, the policy you choose and whether you qualify for health insurance subsidies.

Health insurance premiums are determined for each adult based upon their age, while children below the age of 15 are priced at a flat rate. So, if you add your 40-year-old spouse to your health insurance plan, your premium would increase by an average of $569 per month in Arizona. But the cost of an average Silver health plan would only increase by $341 per child added to the policy.

Health insurance rate changes in Arizona

In 2023, the cost of health insurance in Arizona remained stable, increasing only $3 per month, on average.

The largest increase was seen for Catastrophic plans, which cost 6% more than last year. Meanwhile, the cost of a Bronze plan decreased by 11%.

In Arizona, health insurance premiums, deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums are determined yearly by the health providers. The changes are then approved by state and federal regulators.

Frequently asked questions

Methodology

The Arizona health insurance rate data in this analysis was sourced from the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) website. ValuePenguin used the CMS Public Use Files (PUF) in our calculations to average premiums across a variety of factors such as metal tier, county and family size. 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.