Affordable plans and care.
Wellward is the only site that rates the financial efficiency of health insurance plans, and finds the most economically-efficient plan for you.
Our method works: 70% of Texans overpay for gold and bronze plans. Wellward saves $623 on premiums and lowers Maximum Annual Exposure $2,216, on average.
Plus we find you affordable doctors for common services.
- 6,700 +
- Prices for common services
- Any service
- We’ll gather prices for you
- 42%
- Savings vs. you choosing on your own
A real swap in Dallas County.
$1,389 cheaper. $4,889 safer.
What they bought
BSW Prime Silver HMO 008
Our Pick
Wellpoint Essential Gold 1500
Pay $1,389 less in premium — money in your pocket every year you stay healthy. And if something goes wrong, your Maximum Annual Exposure is $4,889 lower.
11,592 Texans bought this Silver plan in the most recent year with data — and overpaid for the protection they received. Age 40, no smoking.
Half the best plans in Texas aren’t on HealthCare.gov.
We search on-exchange and off-exchange — 51% of the plans that make our Short Lists are off-exchange only. Premium-comparison sites built on the exchange can’t even show them.
The Wellward Efficiency Index
We give you the numbers
no one else does.
Most other sites recommend plans by guessing your healthcare usage. But insurance is meant to cover unknown risks, not routine care. That’s why we find you the plan with the most efficient financial protection — because 9 out of 10 people either stay healthy and barely use their plan, or have something significant happen and owe the maximum their plan can ask of them. Those are the scenarios it’s most important to choose a plan around.
How we do it
First we identify the plans that most efficiently protect you.
Example: every ACA plan in Dallas County, quoted for a 40-year-old non-smoker, August 2026.
Second we price every step up in protection.
Every step up the Short List has a price. We show it as a plain trade: pay $X to reduce your Maximum Annual Exposure by $Y. Then you tell us how likely a big medical year feels — and we tell you which trades are worth taking.
$363/yr
14¢ per $1 you reduce your out-of-pocket max
$2,237
$2,234/yr
49¢ per $1 you reduce your out-of-pocket max
$2,366
What are the odds you need more than $10,600 of care this year?
That’s the point where extra protection starts paying you back, for individual coverage. For adults under 65 it’s about 10% in a typical year.
See this chart for your own county.
Every plan sold where you live, priced for your age — in about a minute.
7 in 10 overpay for Bronze or Gold plans. Do you?
What the average fix is worth
back in your pocket
Lower premium, every year — whether you use the plan or not.
off your worst case
The most a bad year can cost you drops by this much.
Same shelf, same carriers, same prices — the only thing that changes is which plan you own.
Average across Texas Bronze and Gold enrollees in dominated plans, weighted by 2024 enrollment (latest available).
We analyzed every ACA plan in Texas. We show you the few worth buying.
The Wellward Efficiency Index scores all 900+ Texas plan-service area combinations on what actually matters: their efficiency at protecting your financials. About 90% of plans go on the Never List. About 10% remain as the most efficient way to get different levels of protection. That’s your Short List, with one Wellward’s Pick and every buy-up for extra protection shown in plain dollars — so you can see when more protection is a bargain and when it’s a rip-off.
See my plan matches →Your Short List · Dallas County · age 40
Wellpoint Essential Catastrophic (+ Incentives)
Catastrophic · HMO · $10,600 deductible
+$363/yr reduces your Maximum Annual Exposure by $2,237 · 14¢ per $1 you reduce your out-of-pocket max
BSW Savers Bronze HMO H S A 006
Bronze · HMO · $8,000 deductible
+$2,234/yr reduces your Maximum Annual Exposure by $2,366 · 49¢ per $1 you reduce your out-of-pocket max
Wellpoint Essential ICHRA Gold 3400 HSA (+ Incentives)
Gold · POS · $3,400 deductible
Built on the economics of insurance. All of it published.
Our method is the one a Nobel-winning literature says is right: insure the tail, don’t prepay the middle (Arrow 1963; Rabin 2000; Sydnor 2010). And the research keeps finding the same thing — when people pick from a menu of health plans, a large share choose one that is financially dominated: another plan on the same menu would have cost them less no matter how the year went (Bhargava–Loewenstein–Sydnor 2017 found about 60% of employees did exactly that).
Nobody had run that analysis across the ACA market. We did, for every plan in Texas — so you never have to make that mistake.
We publish our full methodology, our data sources, and a county-by-county analysis of all 254 Texas counties. Check it yourself, or hand it to someone who knows insurance.
Then keep saving every time you need care.
The same MRI can cost 5× more at one doctor than another — on the same plan. Oftentimes you can get more upfront clarity on pricing, and a better deal, by paying cash for care that would’ve been part of your deductible anyway. Members who compare first typically save 30–40% on cash-pay prices. We’re the only site that helps you find affordable care too — in three ways, all free:
Cash Price Marketplace
Browse cash-pay rates by service, provider, and location. Don't see what you need? We'll go gather prices for you.
Browse prices →FreePrice Lookup
Your plan's own negotiated rate at providers near you, ranked cheapest first, using the data they make public under federal law.
Look up a service →FreeCareCheck
Send us any estimate before you say yes, and we are happy to review it and give you our view on whether a better price is out there.
Send an estimate →Always confirm pricing directly with the provider before receiving care. Prices shown on Wellward are gathered from providers and published data and can change at any time; Wellward is not responsible for any difference between the pricing shown here and the services performed or the amount a provider ultimately charges.
Want something even more affordable?
The Wellward Bridge Plan — $89/month for real protection against accident, heart attack, stroke and cancer, paid in cash to you. Plus a bridge to full coverage if you need it. Underwritten by Everest (A+).
Fixed-benefit coverage; not major medical.
The Wellward Promise
Our edge is being right for you.
We hold ourselves to a fiduciary standard: we recommend what’s right for you, period. Same standard commission on every plan we sell — including the ones that pay us nothing.
See your Short List.