Health insurance brokers in Ohio

• 160,000+Ohioans lost marketplace coverage in just the first two months of 2026
• 11insurers selling marketplace plans in Ohio for 2026
• $0the fee an Ohio client pays me, because the carrier pays brokers

A third of Ohio's coverage disappeared in two months

Ohio set a record for 2025, with more than 583,000 people enrolled through the marketplace. For 2026, sign ups fell to 469,616, down nearly 20 percent. That was bad enough. Then people started getting their first bills.

KFF found effectuated enrollment in Ohio, meaning people who paid and kept the plan, fell by just over 32 percent, tied with Oklahoma for the steepest drop in the country. More than 160,000 Ohioans lost that coverage in the first two months of the year. The trigger was the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits at the end of 2025, which raised what people owed after their subsidy.

If you were one of the 160,000, the useful question is not whether 2026 was expensive. It is whether a different metal level, a different carrier, or a corrected income estimate would have changed your number. Very often one of them does.

Ohio Medicaid is still there underneath

Ohio expanded Medicaid in January 2014, and about 705,000 Ohioans were covered through the expansion as of October 2025. If your income has dropped, a marketplace plan may not be the right answer at all, and I will tell you that directly rather than enroll you in something you do not need to pay for.

What changes for 2027

Cigna's national exit does not include Ohio. The carrier leaving here is CareSource, which is withdrawing from the whole Ohio individual market, on and off exchange, affecting 28,319 members. If that is you, the Ohio 2027 carrier change page covers exactly what to do with the notice. Everyone else should still expect new prices and read the renewal letter.

Open enrollment dates for 2027 coverage in Ohio

Ohio does not run its own exchange. It uses the federal marketplace at HealthCare.gov, so Ohio follows the federal calendar.

• November 1, 2026Open enrollment begins for 2027 coverage
• December 15, 2026Last day to choose a plan that starts January 1, 2027
• January 15, 2027Open enrollment closes

Outside that window you need a qualifying life event, which usually opens a 60 day special enrollment period. Losing job based coverage, moving, marriage, a new baby, or aging off a parent's plan at 26 all count. Dropping a plan because the bill was too high does not, which is why so many Ohioans who cancelled in early 2026 are still waiting for November.

Every 2027 change in Ohio, carrier by carrier →

How to choose a health insurance broker in Ohio

Anyone can put "broker" on a website. These are the questions that separate the real ones, and you can ask every one of them in a five minute phone call.

1. Verify the license before anything else

   Ask for the license number and the NPN, then look them up yourself. Ohio agents can be checked through the Ohio Department of Insurance agent locator, and every agent in the country is searchable through the NAIC lookup. An agent who hesitates to give you those numbers has told you everything you need to know. Mine are on this page and on my license page.

2. Ask whether they are independent or captive

   A captive agent works for one insurance company and can only sell you that company's plans. An independent broker is appointed with many carriers and compares across them. Neither is dishonest, but only one of them can tell you when a competitor has the better plan for you.

3. Ask what it costs, and be suspicious of any answer other than nothing

   Brokers are paid by the insurance carriers. The premium is identical whether you enroll through a broker, on your own, or directly with the carrier. Nobody should charge you a fee to enroll you in an individual marketplace plan.

4. Ask how many carriers they can actually quote

   "We shop the whole market" is a slogan until someone puts a number on it. Ask which carriers they are appointed with in Ohio, and ask them to show you the comparison rather than describe it.

5. Ask whether they will still be there in March

   Plenty of agents are enthusiastic in December and unreachable in the spring, which is exactly when a claim gets denied or a doctor turns out to be out of network. Ask who you call when something goes wrong. The answer should be a person, not a call center.

6. Read the reviews, and look at the dates

   A handful of genuine reviews spread over time tells you more than a wall of them that all landed in the same week. Mine are on my Google profile and they arrived one at a time, from clients who agreed to write one.

What working with me looks like

You tell me your ZIP code, who needs coverage, and roughly what you expect to earn this year. I check your subsidy eligibility properly, then compare the plans you qualify for side by side, with the real monthly cost after any subsidy is applied. You pick. I handle the enrollment paperwork, and I stay your point of contact afterward for claims questions, renewals, and life changes.

Most first conversations take about ten minutes. There is no cost and no obligation, and I am not going to pressure you into a plan, because a client who was pushed into the wrong coverage is a client who leaves.

Where I work in Ohio

Statewide. Most of my work happens over the phone or a video call, so where you are in Ohio changes nothing about the process.

• Columbus
• Cleveland
• Cincinnati
• Toledo
• Akron
• Dayton
• Parma
• Canton
• Youngstown
• Lorain
• Hamilton
• Springfield
• Kettering
• Elyria
• Lakewood
• Cuyahoga Falls
• Dublin
• Middletown
• Newark
• Mansfield

I am also licensed in 30 other states, so if you are moving or splitting time between two states, that usually is not a problem either.

Who I help most in Ohio

According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 6.7 percent of people in Ohio had no health insurance in 2024, below the national rate of 8.2 percent.

Individuals and families buying their own coverage, self employed people and 1099 contractors, small business owners, people who just lost employer coverage, and early retirees bridging the gap to Medicare. In Ohio I especially want to hear from people who dropped coverage in early 2026 because the first bill was a shock, since that is the group with the most to gain from a proper comparison.