Your renewal notice, read part by part

A renewal notice tells you what your health plan will look like next year, and if you buy through the Marketplace you should get two of them. healthcare.gov says one comes from your current insurance company and one from the Marketplace. Together they tell you whether your current plan is available next year, which plan you are matched with if you take no action, and any changes in your coverage and savings. Read them for six things: the plan name for next year, the monthly premium and any savings applied to it, the deductible, copays and out-of-pocket maximum, whether your doctors and hospitals are still in the network, whether your prescriptions are still covered and at what tier, and the date to act by. For Marketplace plans, healthcare.gov says you are automatically re-enrolled if you take no action by December 15. Keep both letters together.

• healthcare.gov: keep or change your plan

Every insurer lays its letter out differently, but most notices cover the same ground. Look for these.

• The plan for next year. Whether your current plan continues, or which plan you are moved into if it does not. A new plan name is worth noticing even when everything else looks the same.
• The monthly premium. Next year's amount, and in a Marketplace letter, any savings applied to it. Compare it with this year's, but do not stop reading there.
• What you pay when you use care. The deductible, copays and out-of-pocket maximum. These can change even when the premium looks familiar.
• The network. Whether the doctors and hospitals you use are still in it. Notices often point to a directory rather than listing them, so check your own names.
• Prescriptions. Whether your medicines are still covered and at what tier. This sits in the plan's drug list, not always in the letter itself.
• The date to act by. For Marketplace plans, healthcare.gov says you are automatically re-enrolled if you take no action by December 15.

• healthcare.gov: keep or change your plan
• Health insurance terms, plainly

Read it once for the plan name and the date. Read it again for the network and your prescriptions, because those are what you feel when someone in the house needs care. Then decide whether to keep the plan or look again. Our Open Enrollment guide sets out the three decisions.

• Open Enrollment for farm households

If you talk to a licensed advisor, bring the whole letter, both letters if you have two, and your current plan card. The advisor reads the parts that are hard to compare on your own. Our checklist covers the rest of what helps.

• What to have ready before you call

For Missouri farm households priced out at renewal, our Missouri page covers what we know about that situation and who to talk to.

• Missouri

If a subsidized Marketplace plan still fits your household, healthcare.gov is usually the simpler route, and you can review and renew there directly. This guide is written for farm households paying most or all of the premium themselves.