NancyABQ wrote: Mon Nov 03, 2025 8:32 pm
Random Poster wrote: Mon Nov 03, 2025 7:06 pmI’m probably just up the highway from you.
Curiously, there are no Gold plans available to me at all. Only Turquoise, Bronze (two plans, both from either United Healthcare or BCBS, I don’t recall, but premiums slightly higher than the lowest Turquoise one, but with out of pocket maximums of $18,000 (or more?) that I don’t see how they’d make financial sense for anyone), and a few Silver plans that have an all-in price of over $20,000.
At just under the cliff, the Turquoise plans make the most sense to me. Low-ish monthly premium and $2,000 out of pocket max per person, so an all-in worst case scenario would be anywhere from $8,461 to $10,764 for two, depending on which plan I go with.
All I can say is that I’m thankful for the NM legislature.
I did some more investigating today, by putting in my income numbers for next year (which put me just under the cliff). I also checked what I could see for shopping plans when not logged in (just plugging in different income levels). As far as I can tell the Turquoise plans and the Gold plans are essentially the same, except the Turquoise plan is just better in all ways (lower out of pocket, copays, etc). They have the same unsubsidized premium (at least the plan I studied the most did). But if you qualify for a Turquoise plan you wouldn’t pay that premium because you would qualify for subsidies.
If you are below the cliff, it will offer you the Turquoise plans and not the Gold plans. If you are above the cliff, it will offer you the Gold plans and not the Turquoise plans. In both cases you will see Silver and Bronze plans.
I called both BeWellNM and Presbyterian (my provider of choice) and confirmed this. The Presbyterian person said this had been referred to as the Turquoise/Gold plan in some information they had seen.
This was all super-confusing because until this year, and if you google it, you will find the “Turquoise” plan in NM was a sort of special plan for people with quite low incomes (under 138% poverty level for a single person). So when it offered me that I panicked because I would not qualify for that and had not put that level of income in.
Anyway, it all seems to make sense. I think New Mexico is one of the good states as far as the help the state is giving for health insurance.
If you are below the cliff the prices are “reasonable” compared to last year, but still higher. If you are above the cliff and in a middle income sort of range, you are in for some sticker shock.
edit: The State Medicaid one is (or was) called “Turquoise Care” while the BeWellNM one is just called “Turquoise”. Now that’s not confusing at all, is it?
Thank you. That is all very helpful.
Like you, I was googling what Turquoise meant (because, for 2025, we apparently weren’t eligible for any of them), and I kept seeing the State’s Medicaid program, which we are definitely not eligible for.
I spent Saturday (well, the whole weekend, really) freaking out that there was a glitch in the BeWellNM website and that the Turquoise plans I was seeing were plans that we really weren’t eligible for and that I’d get some notice that there was a website error and be forced into a much more expensive plan.
I do think that BeWellNM could have done a much better job in explaining just what “Turquoise” means, especially since the rest of the US uses Bronze, Silver, and Gold.
Also, like you, we will be going with a Presbyterian plan. I don’t see how any of the plans offered by the other insurance companies make any financial sense, but presumably they do for someone. Our only real decision is whether to go with a more limited network (basically, you are locked into Presbyterian facilities and doctors) or spend $200-ish more a month and get a broader network that includes Christus and maybe a few other places.
But thanks again for your post and explanation.
