Texas A&M defines College Station, and it defines the local insurance questions too. Every May, thousands of graduates lose student health plans or age toward the day they fall off a parent's policy. The university and its research enterprise employ much of the town with solid group benefits, while the businesses serving a student population of this size lean on part-time staff who rarely get any.
The rules here
| Max initial term (short-term) | Less than 12 months |
| Max total duration | 36 months (Tex. Ins. Code ch. 1509) |
| Products available | ACA marketplace, short-term, extended short-term, fixed indemnity, supplemental |
| Exchange type | Federal marketplace (HealthCare.gov) |
| Medicaid expansion | No |
What's available in College Station
| Coverage line | Available here | Key limit | Learn more |
|---|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace plans | Yes | Open enrollment or a qualifying event | ACA plans |
| Short-term medical | Yes | Initial term under 12 months | Short-term |
| Extended short-term (multi-year) | Yes | Up to 36 months total | Extended plans |
| Fixed indemnity | Yes | Pays set cash amounts, not a substitute for major medical | Fixed indemnity |
| Supplemental (accident, critical illness, dental, vision) | Yes | Pairs with other coverage | Accident · Critical illness · Dental · Vision |
Short-term and fixed indemnity plans are not ACA compliant and do not count as minimum essential coverage. They are medically underwritten and typically exclude pre-existing conditions.
What one person pays for coverage in Texas
Average monthly premiums for individual coverage. Family pricing differs; quotes are individual.
| Coverage type | Monthly premium (individual) | What that number is |
|---|---|---|
| ACA marketplace (before subsidy) | $709 avg. | State average, before tax credits (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| ACA marketplace (after average subsidy) | $41 after credit | State average, after the average tax credit, among subsidized enrollees (CMS Marketplace OEP, 2026).1 |
| Employer coverage (single / family) | $653 / $2009 single / family | State average total monthly premium, single / family; employee pays about $126/mo toward single coverage (MEPS-IC, 2024).2 |
| Medicaid | $0 or nominal for those who qualify | Program design, not an average; eligibility is income-based5 |
| Fixed indemnity | $235.39 mean | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Texas with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Accident | $44.20 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Texas with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Critical Illness | $30.72 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Texas with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
| Dental | $46.02 median | Among GetHealthPlans.com clients in Texas with individual coverage, as of July 2026.3 |
Self-employed residents, including the consultants and researchers who spin out of the university, start from the individual marketplace benchmark above. Subsidy eligibility follows household income and size for the year, with no guarantees until the application is processed. A licensed agent can run your figures.
Averages from federal data and our own client base, not quotes. Your price depends on your age, household, income, and plan choice.
College Station at a glance
College Station is home to Texas A&M University, one of the largest campuses in the country, and forms a twin-city metro with Bryan. The university system dominates local employment, and the town's population swells and contracts with the academic calendar, producing constant coverage turnover among students and recent graduates.
| Population | County | Metro |
|---|---|---|
| ~121,000 | Brazos (FIPS 48041) | College Station-Bryan |
Three College Station situations
Hannah, 22, graduating in May with a job that starts in September. Her student plan ends over the summer. A short-term plan with an initial term under 12 months covers the gap for a modest underwritten premium, and she cancels when her employer coverage begins.
Trey, 26, aging off his parents' plan this year. Turning 26 is a qualifying event with its own enrollment window. His graduate stipend is low enough that a marketplace subsidy likely makes an ACA plan cheaper than anything underwritten, and it covers his ADHD prescriptions without exclusion games.
Melissa, 48, runs a game-day rental business. Income concentrates in the fall and is respectable across the year. If she clears subsidy range, the extended short-term route at an underwritten rate held for up to 36 months may price below the unsubsidized benchmark, provided she accepts the pre-existing condition exclusions that come with it.
How Texas's rules work
Texas Insurance Code chapter 1509 lets short-term plans run initial terms under 12 months with renewals to a total of 36 months, a duration TDI describes as up to 3 years. State law is the operative limit; the 2024 federal rule that would have shortened these products is currently not being enforced per the August 7, 2025 tri-agency statement.
Texas also did not expand Medicaid. That mostly bites adults below the federal poverty level who have no dependent children, and it can catch graduate students and gig workers whose documented income sits very low: no Medicaid category, no marketplace subsidy, the coverage gap. Anyone near that line should project income carefully, because reaching 100 percent of the poverty level opens the subsidy door.
Open enrollment for College Station runs November 1 through January 15 on HealthCare.gov.
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Keep reading — more Texas guides
Premium data methodology. 1 Marketplace premium averages reflect the average monthly premium before advance premium tax credits, the average monthly premium after advance premium tax credits among subsidized enrollees, and the percentage of enrollees receiving advance premium tax credits, for Texas, as reported in the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) Marketplace Open Enrollment Period Public Use Files, 2026 plan year, available at cms.gov. Figures are statewide averages across all metal tiers, ages, and household sizes; your premium will differ based on your age, household, income, county, and plan selection.
2 Employer coverage averages reflect the average total monthly premium for single and family coverage at private-sector establishments in Texas, including both employer and employee contributions, as reported in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey Insurance Component (MEPS-IC), Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, 2024 tables, available at meps.ahrq.gov. Employee contribution figure reflects the average employee share of the single-coverage premium. Employer plan costs vary by employer, plan design, and firm size.
3 Client averages are calculated from GetHealthPlans.com (MTG Insurance Agency LLC) internal book-of-business records as of July 15, 2026 and reflect the median or mean monthly premium, as labeled, among active policies providing individual coverage (one covered person) of the stated product type held by our clients residing in the stated state or, where labeled agency-wide, across all states in which we operate. Family and multi-person policies are excluded so that figures reflect what one person pays. Figures are shown only for states and products where our records include a sufficient number of active individual policies to report a meaningful average, with a minimum of ten; combinations below that threshold are not shown. Where a figure is labeled "median," half of our client policies in that group pay less and half pay more. Our client base reflects the products we sell, skews toward medically underwritten coverage, and may not represent all buyers or all plans available in a state. These figures are historical averages of premiums actually paid by our clients, are not quotes, offers, or projections, and are not statements of what any individual will pay. Individual premiums are determined by the insurer at application based on age, location, term length, benefit selections, and underwriting outcomes.
4 No federal or state agency publishes average premium data for short-term limited duration insurance or fixed indemnity insurance. Where we do not display a client-base figure for these products, it is because we do not have sufficient policy volume in that state to report a meaningful average. Short-term and fixed indemnity products are medically underwritten, are not major medical coverage, are not required to cover pre-existing conditions or essential health benefits, and do not constitute minimum essential coverage under the Affordable Care Act.
5 Medicaid and CHIP are public programs, not insurance products sold by this agency. Premiums are $0 or nominal for those who qualify; eligibility is determined by your state based on income, household size, and other factors. The figure shown describes program design, not an average. Contact your state Medicaid agency or HealthCare.gov to check eligibility.