15 states ranked · CMS Plan Year 2026 filed rates
Licensed Independent Agent · NPN #22052447 · 21 States
Across 15 states and 1,314 counties, the cheapest Silver plan for a 40-year-old ranges from $558/month in Indiana to $875/month in Nebraska. For Social Media Managers specifically, the state that ranks best on cheapest Silver at age 27 is Michigan; the worst is Arkansas.
Screen-based work skews younger and healthier, which is exactly the profile a high-deductible plan is built for. The risk is real — you carry the first several thousand dollars yourself — so the tables below show what a healthy buyer pays across the age curve, not just at 40.
Occupational context: Repetitive stress; eye strain; always-on schedule. Note that this affects which plan design fits — it does not affect eligibility or price. Under the ACA, carriers may not rate by occupation or health history, so a social media manager and an office worker of the same age in the same county see the same filed premium.
Ordered by cheapest Silver at age 27. Premiums are full price before subsidies.
| # | State | Median Silver @40 | Highest OOP max | Carriers | Counties |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Michigan | $708 | $0 | 7 | 83 |
| 2 | Indiana | $558 | $0 | 5 | 92 |
| 3 | South Carolina | $636 | $0 | 6 | 46 |
| 4 | Ohio | $625 | $0 | 11 | 88 |
| 5 | South Dakota | $725 | $0 | 3 | 66 |
| 6 | Wisconsin | $687 | $0 | 12 | 72 |
| 7 | Texas | $807 | $0 | 15 | 254 |
| 8 | North Carolina | $828 | $0 | 6 | 100 |
| 9 | Florida | $789 | $0 | 15 | 67 |
| 10 | Oklahoma | $731 | $0 | 7 | 77 |
| 11 | Kansas | $765 | $0 | 6 | 105 |
| 12 | Alabama | $680 | $0 | 4 | 67 |
| 13 | Nebraska | $875 | $0 | 5 | 93 |
| 14 | Utah | $805 | $0 | 6 | 29 |
| 15 | Arkansas | $828 | $0 | 4 | 75 |
Most Social Media Managers buying their own coverage are also deducting it. Categories that typically apply to this trade: Software, scheduling tools, hardware, home office. Self-employed health insurance premiums are generally deductible above the line under IRC §162(l) when you are not eligible for an employer plan through a spouse. That is a tax question, not an insurance one — confirm it with your CPA.
The subsidy math matters more than the premium: premium tax credits phase with household income, so two Social Media Managers in the same county with different net income can pay very different amounts for the identical plan.
Indiana, at a median Silver premium of $558 per month for a 40-year-old before subsidies. Nebraska is the most expensive at $875.
No. ACA plans are community rated. Price varies only by age, ZIP code, tobacco use, and household size. Occupation cannot be used to rate, decline, or exclude you.
Desk-based work usually means low claim volume and a younger buyer, which makes a high-deductible plan paired with an HSA the mathematically better bet in most years. These pages rank states by what a healthy buyer actually pays at ages 27 and 40.
Coverage by County publishes a page for every county in each state, with the carriers filing there and their filed premiums, plus profession-specific guides for Social Media Managers in each state.
The table above uses CMS plan-level records, which exist only for states on healthcare.gov. Six states run their own exchanges and are absent from that file. The benchmark premium — the second-lowest-cost Silver plan for a 40-year-old, weighted by county enrollment — is published on the same basis for every state, so it is the one number that compares all 21.
| # | State | Benchmark @40 | YoY | Exchange |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | Maryland | $414 | +13% | SBE |
| 2 | Virginia | $455 | +22% | SBE |
| 3 | Indiana | $474 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 4 | Nevada | $497 | +20% | SBE |
| 5 | Ohio | $513 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 6 | Michigan | $523 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 7 | Colorado | $557 | +20% | SBE |
| 8 | South Carolina | $564 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 9 | Oklahoma | $604 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 10 | Wisconsin | $611 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 11 | Georgia | $615 | +25% | SBE |
| 12 | North Carolina | $638 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 13 | Utah | $640 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 14 | Alabama | $645 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 15 | Illinois | $646 | +36% | SBE |
| 16 | South Dakota | $655 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 17 | Texas | $661 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 18 | Kansas | $670 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 19 | Florida | $683 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 20 | Nebraska | $710 | — | healthcare.gov |
| 21 | Arkansas | $774 | — | healthcare.gov |
KFF, “Marketplace Average Benchmark Premiums,” 2026. Benchmark is the second-lowest-cost Silver plan for a 40-year-old, weighted by plan selections. State-run exchange states are marked SBE and use state rate-filing data rather than the CMS Landscape file.