If you have ever typed "cheap health insurance" into a search box, you have met the pitch: a plan for $89 a month, no network hassles, coverage that starts tomorrow.
Short-term health insurance is having a moment, and the marketing around it has gotten very good at sounding like the real thing.
These plans were designed as a temporary bridge — originally for people between jobs or waiting on Medicare.
Federal rules now let insurers sell them for up to three years in many states, which is long enough that shoppers start treating them like permanent coverage.
A short-term plan might run $100 to $200 a month for a healthy 40-year-old, versus $450 or more for an ACA marketplace plan in many parts of the country.
That gap is real, and for someone who just lost a job, it can feel like the only option.
The catch is what you are actually buying.
Most short-term plans can deny coverage based on your medical history, which ACA plans cannot do.
They can exclude pre-existing conditions outright.
Prescription drugs, maternity care, and mental health treatment are often limited or missing entirely.
Some cap annual payouts at $250,000 or less.
A 2023 Kaiser Family Foundation review of short-term plan data found denial rates for claims that would be covered under ACA rules running far higher than traditional insurance.
One common pattern: you pay premiums for months, then get diagnosed with something expensive, and the insurer points to a line in the application you answered loosely.
The brokers earning commissions, and the insurers collecting premiums from people who believe they bought comprehensive coverage.
The plans are legal and clearly disclosed in the fine print — but the fine print is not what shows up in the ad.
If you are healthy, between jobs for two months, and mainly want protection against a catastrophic accident, a short-term plan can beat going uninsured.
It can also beat a $700 COBRA payment you cannot afford.
The rule of thumb: check whether you qualify for a marketplace subsidy before you buy anything.
Many people who assume they earn too much are surprised.
Losing a job, having a baby, or moving often opens a special enrollment window.
And read the exclusions page, not the price page.
None of this means short-term plans should be banned.
It means the $89 headline is doing a lot of work, and the person clicking it usually finds out what it actually bought at the worst possible moment.
Our take: if a plan's main selling point is how little it costs, ask what it is not covering.
Final Thoughts
Cheap premiums are not a scam by themselves — but they are a promise about what happens when you get sick, and that promise is worth reading twice.