You can still get a nationwide PPO in Illinois through me, without paying what the Cook County marketplace charges for one. Here is how Chicago agents are choosing coverage on Get Covered Illinois and off it.
Hi, I'm Sam Jaber, a licensed broker based in Tampa. I'm licensed in 36 states, and I work with Illinois agents entirely by phone.
Take an agent who lives in Portage Park and lists brick bungalows, two-flats and the odd condo across the Northwest Side and into the near suburbs. Spring is frantic, the holidays are dead, and a single two-flat closing can be a third of her year. Her brokerage gives her a desk and a split, not a health plan. Since 2026 she shops at Get Covered Illinois, the state's own exchange, instead of HealthCare.gov. When she sorts its Cook County plans by network type, she finds a PPO costs more than twice what the least expensive HMO does.
Cook County has 78 individual medical plans on Get Covered Illinois for 2026, from five insurers: 59 HMOs, 9 POS plans and 10 PPOs. Illinois files its marketplace rates by rating area, and Cook is a rating area of its own. Within it, the least expensive silver PPO costs 115% more than the least expensive silver HMO, at age 40 before any subsidy.
You can still get a nationwide PPO in Illinois through me, priced on your health rather than at that markup. It's a private plan with a network that works on the North Shore, in Northwest Indiana and in any city where you vacation or have family.
Get Covered Illinois sizes your credit to household income for the coverage year, and the help runs up to four times the federal poverty level. An agent's number is commission after the split, desk fees, MLS and association dues, advertising, staging and parking downtown. At the bottom of the scale, Illinois expanded Medicaid, and KFF lists the adult limit at 138% of the poverty level.
Prices moved a lot this year. The Illinois Department of Insurance reported a 28.8% statewide weighted average increase for 2026 individual plans.
Enroll through Get Covered Illinois, since that's the only place the credit applies. In Cook County I'd almost always start with the HMOs. The credit is based on a benchmark silver plan, so it doesn't rise if you choose the PPO, and paying more than double for the network rarely pencils out. The real job is finding the HMO whose network includes your doctors and the hospital you trust.
Next step: Send me your doctors and last year's net, and I'll show you which Cook County HMOs keep them, with your credit applied.
Past the credit range, the full price lands on you, and in Cook County the PPO is the most expensive way to buy a network. This is where a lot of top producers go private. The application asks health questions, and the answer comes back as an approval, an approval with a specific condition excluded, or a decline. A healthy agent often pays less than the marketplace's full rate, and the network covers the whole country. Each plan defines its own benefits, and we go over them before you choose.
Next step: Call me and I'll compare a nationwide PPO quote with the full Get Covered Illinois prices for your zip code.
Get Covered Illinois has posted which insurers are leaving its marketplace for 2027. If yours is one of them, don't count on a quiet renewal. Use open enrollment, November 1 to January 15, to pick a replacement whose network still includes your doctors, or to price a private plan if you're healthy.
Next step: Call me when your renewal notice arrives and we'll sort out where you land for next year.
If anyone on your plan sees a specialist or depends on a prescription, stay with Get Covered Illinois even at full price. Its plans accept everyone and can't charge more because of health. In Cook County there are plenty of networks to check, so the work is matching your specialists and hospital to one of them.
Next step: Give me your doctors and prescriptions, and I'll narrow Cook County's plans to those that keep them.
Straight answers, no sales pitch.
Yes. Cook County has ten, and the least expensive silver PPO costs 115% more than the least expensive silver HMO.
No. Starting with plan year 2026, Illinois residents enroll through Get Covered Illinois.
Get Covered Illinois open enrollment runs from November 1 to January 15.
Yes. Healthy agents can buy one privately through me.
Tell me your zip code, who you need to cover and roughly what you cleared after the split last year. I'll show you what Get Covered Illinois costs for you and what a private nationwide PPO costs, side by side.
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