I met a guy who had his family on a health insurance plan through his employer. He was paying over $2000.00 a month for his premiums (that's a monthly amount). He called me because one of my clients referred him to me. He asked if he could just get on one of the affordable healthcare act plans in our area. He had tried to already, but the system said he wasn't eligible because he had a plan through his employer. Which is a rule but there is a way we can get him on a plan if he is in the enrollment period. The biggest qualifier is income. How much you make can be the deciding factor whether you can move from your group/employer plan to an ACA plan or marketplace plan. If your premiums are above 9.61% of your yearly income you could qualify for an exception. The reason for this is that your employer could be a smaller company that does not contribute as much as a larger company would toward your premiums. Yes, for a family the employer could pay above $2000 a month easily. This man and his young family weren't able to get on an ACA plan yet we looked at other options as an alternative. A Health Indemnity benefit is where he settled until the enrollment period starts again in November. Which in many cases is better than ACA. So to conclude this little thought, if you are paying a good chunk of the premiums. If you work for a small company that contributes a small amount you can get your premiums down without compromising on benefits as long as your premiums aren't under 9.61% of your income.