How we source and interpret our data
Private Health Insurance Direct Answers publishes off-exchange, no-subsidy private health-insurance answers. Every figure on this site is either lifted verbatim from a named U.S. government primary source, or derived by a documented arithmetic step from one. We do not estimate, interpolate, or extrapolate; if a figure cannot be sourced, we describe the rule and link the source instead of inventing a number.
Answer content (rules, limits, and eligibility)
Rules and dollar figures in our answers — HSA contribution limits, HDHP minimum deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, COBRA continuation rules, the ACA marketplace framework, and the 2026 federal poverty guideline thresholds — come from primary U.S. government publishers:
- IRS Rev. Proc. 2025-19 — 2026 HSA / HDHP inflation-adjusted limits.
- U.S. Department of Labor — COBRA — election windows and 18 / 29 / 36-month continuation rules.
- HealthCare.gov Glossary — plain-English definitions of ACA marketplace terms.
- CMS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters (2026) — essential health benefits and marketplace parameters for plan year 2026.
City demographics
Population, median household income, and uninsured rate on every city page come from the U.S. Census Bureau American Community Survey 5-Year Estimates, 2020-2024 vintage:
- Population — ACS 5-Year total population estimates.
- Median household income — ACS 5-Year table B19013.
- Uninsured rate — ACS 5-Year table S2701.
- Program page: census.gov/programs-surveys/acs.
The vintage is fixed: every city row is stamped with the ACS release it came from, and city rows are not silently re-baselined when a newer ACS release ships. When we adopt a new vintage, we re-load the corpus in a single dated wave.
ZIP code to city association
ZIP codes shown on city pages come from the U.S. Census Bureau ZCTA (ZIP Code Tabulation Area) to Place and ZCTA to County national relationship files. Because ZIPs and municipalities do not map one-to-one, the ZIP list on a city page is the set of ZCTAs the Census relationship files associate with that place — not a claim that mail addressed to any of those ZIPs is inside the city limits.
2026 benchmark silver premium (where shown)
Where a city page cites a 2026 benchmark silver premium for a 40-year-old, that figure is derived from the county-level Qualified Health Plan data published by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services for plan year 2026 (the second-lowest-cost silver plan available in the county at age 40). We surface the number only where the source table associates a plan with the city's county; we do not project unknown counties from neighboring ones.
Update cadence
Answer rows are fact-checked against the sources named in each page's Sources section on publish and re-checked when a primary source releases a new edition (annual IRS revenue procedures, new CMS payment parameters, new ACS 5-Year vintage). We do not silently edit money-figure claims; when a figure changes, the page's "Last updated" stamp changes with it.
What we deliberately do not do
- We do not estimate or interpolate demographic or premium figures.
- We do not fabricate quotations from government agencies or officials.
- We do not present ourselves as, or on behalf of, any government agency, HealthCare.gov, CMS, the IRS, the DOL, or any insurance carrier.
- We do not publish subsidy-eligibility guidance for households below the ACA subsidy cliff — that audience is served by our sibling site, acadirectanswers.com.
Reviewed by Jason Burns, Editorial Steward.