Ranked 10 of 17 states · median $773/mo · CMS PY2026
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A 40-year-old personal chef in Tennessee pays a median $773/month for a Silver plan before subsidies — 10th of 17 on cost. The cheapest plan in the state is $646 from Ambetter of Tennessee in Fayette. On highest out-of-pocket maximum, Tennessee ranks 17 of 17 for this occupation.
For work with real injury exposure the premium is the wrong headline number. What decides a bad year is the annual out-of-pocket maximum — the ceiling you stop paying at. A fall, a fracture, an imaging series and a course of physical therapy will reach that ceiling on any metal tier, so the states below are ordered by worst-case exposure.
Occupational context: Burns and cuts; prolonged standing; heat exposure.
Worth being clear about what this does and does not affect: a carrier in Tennessee cannot ask what you do for a living, cannot charge a personal chef more than a librarian of the same age in the same ZIP, and cannot exclude anything you were already treated for. Occupation only tells you which plan structure to shop for.
Premium is set by rating area, so a personal chef in one Tennessee county can pay materially more than one an hour away. Six counties from across the state, cheapest Silver plan for a 40-year-old:
| County | Cheapest Silver @40 | Issuer | Deductible | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Morgan | $669 | Ambetter of Tennessee | $6,000 | 4 |
| Hancock | $678 | BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee | $8,100 | 4 |
| Bradley | $698 | Ambetter of Tennessee | $6,000 | 5 |
| Polk | $698 | Ambetter of Tennessee | $6,000 | 5 |
| Decatur | $701 | BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee | $8,100 | 5 |
| Lake | $701 | BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee | $8,100 | 5 |
The spread across just these six is $32/month — $385 a year for the same metal tier. Statewide the range runs $646 to $1,001. Coverage by County publishes all 95 Tennessee counties individually.
| Tennessee — worst-case exposure | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Lowest annual out-of-pocket maximum | $5,200 |
| Highest annual out-of-pocket maximum | $10,600 |
| Cheapest Gold plan @40 | $636 — Oscar |
| Gold deductible | $2,000 |
| Cheapest Silver @40 | $646 — Ambetter of Tennessee |
| Cheapest Silver @50 | $903 |
For a personal chef, the gap between $5,200 and $10,600 in annual out-of-pocket maximum is worth more than any premium difference on this page. One serious injury reaches that ceiling regardless of which plan you picked.
Source: CMS Plan Year 2026 Qualified Health Plan Landscape file. 5,239 plan records across 95 Tennessee counties. Full-price filed rates before premium tax credits — verify at enrollment.
Cheaper for the same coverage: South Dakota ($725), Oklahoma ($731), Kansas ($765). More expensive: Mississippi ($773), Florida ($789), Utah ($805).
Side-by-side: Tennessee vs Oklahoma · Tennessee vs Kansas · Tennessee vs Mississippi · Tennessee vs Florida
This only matters if you can actually choose — you buy in the state where you live, not where you work. If you are a personal chef who moved this year, that move is a qualifying life event and opens a special enrollment period.
If you file a Schedule C as a personal chef, the categories that usually show up are: Ingredients, knives and equipment, vehicle, licensing. The health premium itself is normally an above-the-line deduction under IRC §162(l), which reduces AGI rather than requiring you to itemize. Your CPA should confirm it against your actual situation.
If your household income is above the subsidy range, ACA is not automatically the answer. There are other categories of coverage that may fit, and they work very differently. That is a conversation, not a web page.
The BLS median wage for Chefs and Head Cooks in Tennessee is $59,470 a year (May 2024). Starting pay — the 10th percentile — is about $40,810. The middle half earn $49,390 to $72,920, and the top 10% more than $87,010. BLS counts about 2,720 people doing this work for an employer in Tennessee. The self-employed are not in the BLS survey, so this is the going rate for the work, not your own number.
The cheapest Silver plan for a 40-year-old in Tennessee is $646 per month from Ambetter of Tennessee, with a state median of $773. Both figures are full price before premium tax credits; most buyers pay less after subsidies.
No. Tennessee exchange plans are guaranteed issue and community rated, so a personal chef pays exactly what anyone else of the same age in the same ZIP pays. Occupation is not on the application as a rating factor.
No. Only EPO plans were filed for 2026.
Tennessee ranks 10 of 17 states covered here, at a median $773 per month. Indiana is cheapest at $558 and Nebraska is most expensive at $875.
Below the cliff. At this income a single-person household remains eligible for a premium tax credit in 2027.
This occupation sits above the cliff in 1 of the 23 states reported and below it in the other 22, so the answer changes with the state.
What this figure is. It is the median annual wage BLS reports for Chefs and Head Cooks (SOC 35-1011) in Tennessee. BLS surveys wage and salary workers and excludes the self-employed, so it is a benchmark for the occupation in this state — not the income of a self-employed personal chef. Premium tax credit eligibility is set by household modified adjusted gross income and household size, not by occupation, so treat this as a reference point rather than a determination of what you qualify for.
Why the cliff is back. The enhanced premium tax credits expired on 31 December 2025. For plan year 2027 the 400% FPL limit applies again, so household income above $63,840 ends premium tax credit eligibility outright.
This page compares states. For Tennessee specifically — county-by-county carriers, plan data and enrollment help — I publish that on Coverage by County, including a page written for Personal Chefs in Tennessee and a blog covering deductibles, subsidies and special enrollment.
The biggest change here is a carrier walking away. Cigna leaves the ACA individual market on January 1, 2027 — one of the 6 carriers writing in Tennessee today. Every personal chef on a Cigna plan is moving, and doing nothing just means the marketplace chooses the replacement.
Rate filings for 2027 point to roughly a 15% median increase nationally, from −1% at one end to 54% at the other. Tennessee has finalised: insurers were approved for an average 15.6% increase for 2027. Your own premium still turns on your plan and county.
Mark November 1, 2026 to open and December 15 to act. That second date guarantees cover from January 1 in Tennessee regardless of how the current litigation over the enrollment window resolves.
There is still no PPO on the Tennessee marketplace — not in any of its 95 counties. Every plan is an EPO, which for a personal chef working across a wide area is the binding constraint, not price.
You already know you are changing plans — Cigna is leaving. The only real question is whether you pick the replacement or the marketplace picks it for you, and that is a much easier decision made now than in the second week of December.
Enter a ZIP and a licensed agent will tell you three things:
Two Personal Chefs on opposite sides of Tennessee can be quoted very different premiums for the same plan. Your ZIP is what decides it.
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