You can still get a nationwide PPO in Utah, and for an established heating and cooling owner paying full price after this year's increase, it deserves a look. Here's how Wasatch Front HVAC owners are deciding.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber. Health insurance is my entire practice, I'm based in Tampa, I hold a Utah license, and we can work through everything on the phone.
Along the Wasatch Front, an HVAC company earns its keep twice a year. Winter cold and the valley inversions keep furnaces running hard from Layton to Ogden, and the dry summer heat keeps the AC side just as busy. An owner who's built up maintenance agreements across Davis and Weber counties is often doing well, well enough that the federal premium help no longer applies. For that owner, this year's renewal probably came as a surprise.
For an established owner with a healthy family, you can still get a nationwide PPO in Utah, and I'm glad to quote it.
You won't buy it on HealthCare.gov. Utah's 2026 lineup is 57 individual medical plans from 6 insurers, 37 HMOs and 20 EPOs, and no PPO. Davis County has 44 of those plans from 4 insurers, Weber County 38 from 4. Plenty of choices, but each one is tied to a network that generally won't pay for a routine out-of-network visit. A PPO will, at a higher share for you and with no referral. Private plans that review your health before pricing you offer that on networks that span the country.
KFF reports that the average benchmark marketplace premium for a 40-year-old in Utah rose 17.0% from 2025 to 2026. If your household earns past the federal credit's range, you absorb all of it. For an HVAC owner, that range is measured against profit, meaning revenue after trucks, equipment, parts, refrigerant, licensing, insurance and payroll.
A healthy family paying that full price for a single-network plan is exactly who should run a comparison. The aim isn't to leave the marketplace for its own sake; it's to make sure the money you're spending buys the most coverage your family will actually use.
This is the owner this page is built around. Here's how the comparison works:
The national network also helps if you travel, or if a child heads to college outside Utah.
Next step: Send me your county, the ages on your plan and your new marketplace price, and I'll show you the side-by-side.
That changes the answer. If anyone at home manages a chronic illness or a daily medication, keep the household on the marketplace, even after the increase, because no marketplace plan may refuse an applicant or price them on health. With dozens of plans in Davis and Weber, the job is finding the one whose network and drug list fit that person's care.
Next step: Give me your family's doctors and prescriptions and I'll narrow the list to the plans that cover them.
If a mild winter or a slow summer puts your household back in the credit range, a marketplace plan with the credit is usually the least expensive choice again. If income falls to 138% of the federal poverty level or below, Utah's Medicaid expansion is an option. And whatever workers' comp policy covers your techs, it applies to job injuries, not illness.
Next step: Call me when you can see the year is lighter and we'll re-run the numbers.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
KFF reports the average benchmark premium for a 40-year-old in Utah rose 17.0% from 2025 to 2026.
Not a medical one; Utah's 57 marketplace plans for 2026 are all HMOs or EPOs. Owners in good health can buy a nationwide PPO privately through me.
There's no guarantee. Ages, health histories and the plan you're comparing against all move the answer, so I run both numbers rather than assume.
It usually points you back to the marketplace, where nobody is denied or surcharged over a diagnosis. We'd then pick the plan whose formulary lists that medication at the best tier.
Forward the renewal notice or just tell me the new monthly price, plus your county and everyone's ages. I'll set a nationwide PPO quote and the other marketplace plans next to it, and tell you honestly which I'd keep.
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