Catastrophic vs Bronze Calculator
The two cheap plans, and the year you expect
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Fill in the fields on the left and this updates as you type.
Know what this estimate is based on
- Jurisdiction
- General mathematical model
- Scope and limitations
- Educational estimate only. Confirm the assumptions, current rules, fees, and rounding that apply to your situation before making a decision.
- Source links checked
- Jul 30, 2026
Built and regression-tested by Smart Tools Lab. It has not been individually reviewed by a licensed financial, tax, or legal professional.
How to use
- 01
Set the eligibility flag first. Enter 1 only if you are under 30 or hold a hardship or affordability exemption, because those are the two routes into a catastrophic plan. If you enter 0 the page still runs the arithmetic, but the bronze column is your real choice.
- 02
Enter the catastrophic plan's monthly premium exactly as quoted. No premium tax credit applies to a catastrophic plan, so the number on the Marketplace is the number you pay.
- 03
Enter the bronze plan's monthly premium after any premium tax credit you would receive. This is the step that decides most comparisons: a household with a large credit sees the bronze premium fall while the catastrophic one does not move at all.
- 04
Add each plan's deductible and out-of-pocket maximum, and the bronze plan's coinsurance. A catastrophic plan pays covered essential benefits in full once its deductible is met, so it has no coinsurance band to enter.
- 05
Enter the care you expect, your marginal tax rate and the HSA contribution you would make, then read the crossover. It names the level of care at which the cheaper plan changes, which matters more than the answer at any single guess.
Formula
Total yearly cost on either plan = premium × 12 + your share of care, where your share is everything up to the deductible, then the coinsurance percentage of anything above it, capped at the out-of-pocket maximum. A catastrophic plan is run with no coinsurance band, because it pays covered essential health benefits in full once the deductible is met. The bronze premium should already be net of any premium tax credit and the catastrophic premium gross, since no credit applies to it. HSA tax saving = the contribution × your marginal rate, and from 2026 it is available on both plans, so it does not change which one wins. The crossover is found by walking both cost curves up in steps and reporting the first level of care at which the cheaper plan changes.
Example
Someone under 30 compares a $310 catastrophic plan, with a $10,600 deductible and the same out-of-pocket maximum, against a $420 bronze plan with a $7,500 deductible, 40% coinsurance and a $9,200 out-of-pocket maximum, expecting $3,000 of care and contributing $3,000 to an HSA at a 22% marginal rate. The catastrophic plan costs $6,720 for the year, made up of $3,720 of premium and $3,000 of care, against $8,040 for the bronze plan, so the catastrophic route is $1,320 cheaper, which is precisely the premium gap. The HSA saves $660 either way, because from 2026 both plans qualify. The answer flips at about $9,750 of care: at $10,000 the bronze plan is ahead at $13,540 against $13,720. In the worst possible year the catastrophic plan reaches $14,320 and the bronze plan $14,240, so the bronze plan is the cheaper of the two by $80 when everything goes wrong. Raise expected care to $25,000 and both plans are at their ceilings, with the bronze plan ahead by that same $80.
Definitions
- Catastrophic plan
- A Marketplace plan with a very high deductible, open only to people under 30 or holding a hardship or affordability exemption. No premium tax credit may be applied to it.
- Bronze plan
- The lowest metal level of ordinary Marketplace coverage, with low premiums and high cost-sharing. Unlike a catastrophic plan it can be bought by anyone and can carry a premium tax credit.
- Hardship exemption
- A certification that circumstances such as homelessness, eviction, bankruptcy or a recent death in the family prevented you from obtaining coverage. It is one of the two routes into a catastrophic plan.
- Out-of-pocket maximum
- The most a plan can make you pay for covered in-network care in a year. Once you reach it the plan pays the rest. For 2026 CMS set the limit at $10,600 for self-only coverage and $21,200 for a family.
- Crossover
- The level of yearly medical bills at which the cheaper of two plans changes. Below it the plan with the lower premium wins; above it the plan with better cost-sharing does.
Good to know
Who is actually allowed to buy a catastrophic plan
A catastrophic plan is not simply the cheapest tier of Marketplace coverage. It is a restricted product, and the restriction is the first thing to settle, because for most people the comparison on this page never arises. healthcare.gov lists two routes in. The first is age: people under 30 may buy one. The second is an exemption: people who qualify for a hardship exemption or an affordability exemption may buy one at any age. A hardship exemption covers circumstances that prevented someone obtaining coverage, such as homelessness, eviction, bankruptcy, the death of a close family member, a fire or flood, or substantial medical debt. An affordability exemption applies where the coverage available to you would cost more than a set share of household income. Both are applied for through the Marketplace and both require documentation, so neither is something to assume. There is a third practical limit that has nothing to do with eligibility: catastrophic plans are not sold everywhere, and in many counties none is offered at all. Before planning around one, check that a catastrophic plan actually appears in your own Marketplace results for your area. What you get if you qualify is a plan with a very high deductible, which pays for essential health benefits in full once that deductible is met. Like every Marketplace plan it must cover preventive services at no cost and it includes a small number of primary care visits before the deductible. Because the plan pays covered essential benefits fully after the deductible, this page runs the catastrophic side with no coinsurance band, which is why its deductible and out-of-pocket maximum are often the same figure. The page asks you to set an eligibility flag at the top for exactly this reason. If you enter 0, it still runs the arithmetic so you can see what you are not able to buy, but it says plainly that the bronze column is your real choice, and that is the honest reading.
The credit that only one of these plans can use
The rule that decides most of these comparisons is not about deductibles at all. It is that no premium tax credit may be applied to a catastrophic plan. The IRS states it directly in the instructions to Form 8962: catastrophic health plans purchased through the Marketplace are not qualified health plans for the purposes of the premium tax credit, and therefore do not qualify a taxpayer to take it. Stand-alone dental plans and plans bought through the small business programme are excluded on the same basis. This has a sharp practical consequence. A catastrophic plan's advertised premium is the price you pay, full stop. A bronze plan's advertised premium is a starting point that a credit may reduce, sometimes to a very small figure and occasionally to nothing. So the two numbers you compare are not comparable as quoted, and the page insists on the correction: enter the catastrophic premium as quoted and the bronze premium after any credit you would receive. Get that the wrong way round and the comparison is meaningless. The effect is that catastrophic plans make sense mainly for people who generate little or no credit, which in practice means younger people with incomes above 400% of the poverty line, where the credit is now zero because the enhanced credits expired after 2025. For a household with a substantial credit the bronze plan almost always wins before cost-sharing is even considered, because its net premium falls while the catastrophic premium does not move. There is a related point about cost-sharing reductions, which are a different benefit again. They attach only to Silver plans and only between 100% and 250% of the poverty line, so neither plan on this page can use them. A household in that income range that is eligible for them may well find a Silver plan cheaper overall than either of these, despite its higher headline premium, which is worth checking on the Marketplace before settling on the cheapest tier.
Why both plans now fund an HSA, and what that changes
Until 2026 the health savings account was often the argument that settled this comparison, and it pointed away from Marketplace plans generally. An HSA can only be funded by someone covered by a high deductible health plan as the tax code defines it, and that definition turned on specific minimum deductibles and maximum out-of-pocket limits. Many bronze and catastrophic plans, despite obviously high deductibles, failed the technical test, usually because their out-of-pocket maximums exceeded the limit the code allows. Buyers were left in the odd position of holding a plan with a $7,000 deductible that could not fund the account designed for exactly that situation. Public Law 119-21 changed this at its section 71307, headed allowance of bronze and catastrophic plans in connection with health savings accounts. It added a new subparagraph 223(c)(2)(H) treating as a high deductible health plan any plan available as individual coverage through an Exchange and described in section 1302(d)(1)(A) or section 1302(e) of the Affordable Care Act, which are the bronze and catastrophic levels. Its subsection (b) applies the change to months beginning after 31 December 2025. The practical effect for this page is neat and slightly counterintuitive: because both plans now qualify, the HSA stops being a tie-breaker between them. In the example a $3,000 contribution at a 22% marginal rate saves $660 in tax, and that $660 is available whichever plan is chosen, so it cancels out of the comparison. The page still shows it, because it is real money and it changes what the cheaper plan actually costs you, but it no longer points in either direction. Where the change does matter is in comparing either of these plans against Silver or Gold coverage, which generally still cannot fund an HSA, and in the decision to open an account at all. The contribution limits, the catch-up from 55 and the rules on a partial year of eligibility are the subject of the HSA contribution limit page.
Reading the crossover, and pricing the worst year
Once eligibility and the credit are settled, what remains is a comparison of two cost curves, and the useful output is not the answer at one guess about next year's medical bills but the level of care at which the answer changes. In the example the catastrophic plan wins at $3,000 of expected care by $1,320, and that figure is exactly the premium difference, because at that level both plans are still inside their deductibles and neither is paying anything at all. The crossover comes at about $9,750 of care, and past it the bronze plan stays ahead. The bronze plan in the example has a lower deductible at $7,500 and 40% coinsurance above it, reaching its $9,200 out-of-pocket maximum at around $11,750 of care. The catastrophic plan pays nothing until $10,600 and then everything. Because the bronze ceiling is the lower of the two, once both plans are capped the bronze plan is cheaper and stays cheaper however large the year becomes. The page's table samples $10,000 deliberately, where bronze costs $13,540 against $13,720, so that the table corroborates the crossover figure rather than appearing to contradict it. The worst-case column deserves the most weight, and it points the other way from the headline. Because both plans have an out-of-pocket maximum, the very bad year is bounded: $14,320 on the catastrophic plan and $14,240 on the bronze one, premiums included. So the plans differ by only $80 in a catastrophe, while the catastrophic plan saves $1,320 in a quiet year. That is worth sitting with, because it inverts the usual intuition: the plan that is cheaper in a good year is also, very slightly, the dearer one in the worst year, and the gap that matters is the one in the good year. That bounded ceiling is the real product both plans are selling. For 2026 CMS set the maximum annual limitation on cost sharing at $10,600 for self-only coverage and $21,200 for a family, so no Marketplace plan may leave you exposed beyond that for covered in-network care. Your own plan documents and the Marketplace set the actual deductibles, networks and limits, and they are the authority for what any specific plan will pay.
Frequently asked questions
Which is cheaper, a catastrophic plan or a bronze plan?
It depends on the premium gap and how much care you use. On this page's example, a $310 catastrophic plan comes to $6,720 for the year at $3,000 of care, against $8,040 for a $420 bronze plan, so the catastrophic plan is $1,320 cheaper. That $1,320 is exactly the premium difference, because at that level of care both plans are still inside their deductibles and neither is paying anything.
Who is allowed to buy a catastrophic plan?
healthcare.gov lists two routes in: people under 30, and people who qualify for a hardship exemption or an affordability exemption. Everyone else cannot buy one at any price. They are also not sold in every area, so check that one actually appears in your own Marketplace results before planning around it.
Can I use a subsidy on a catastrophic plan?
No, and the IRS is explicit about it. The Form 8962 instructions say catastrophic health plans are not qualified health plans for the purposes of the premium tax credit, and therefore do not qualify a taxpayer to take it. This is usually what decides the comparison: a household with a large credit sees its bronze premium drop while the catastrophic premium stays where it is.
Can a bronze plan really fund an HSA in 2026?
Yes. Public Law 119-21 added section 223(c)(2)(H) at its section 71307, treating any plan available as individual coverage through an Exchange and described in section 1302(d)(1)(A) or 1302(e) of the Affordable Care Act, which is bronze and catastrophic, as a high deductible health plan. It applies to months beginning after 31 December 2025. The practical effect is that the HSA no longer breaks the tie: in the example a $3,000 contribution at a 22% marginal rate saves $660 on either plan.
At what level of care does the answer flip?
In the example, at about $9,750 of medical bills for the year. Below that the cheaper premium is ahead; just above it the bronze plan's coinsurance and lower out-of-pocket maximum take over. At $10,000 of care the bronze plan costs $13,540 against $13,720 for the catastrophic one. Past that point the bronze plan stays ahead, because its out-of-pocket maximum of $9,200 is lower than the catastrophic plan's $10,600, so the bronze ceiling is the lower of the two.
What does the worst possible year cost on each plan?
The out-of-pocket maximum sets the ceiling, so in the example a catastrophic year tops out at $14,320 and a bronze year at $14,240, premiums included. The bronze plan is the cheaper of the two by $80 when everything goes wrong, because its out-of-pocket maximum is the lower one. That $80 is tiny next to the $1,320 the catastrophic plan saves in a quiet year, which is the useful point: on these figures the plans differ far more in a good year than in a bad one. Your own plan documents set the real limits.