Design the contribution.
See the cost of every choice.
A 2027 ICHRA / CHOICE analysis for employers and brokers. Start with employee-only Silver benchmarks, compare allowance strategies, and see affordability gaps before setting the budget.
One employee per row.
Use employee IDs rather than names. Include the on-Exchange employee-only lowest-cost Silver premium, benchmark year and source. Selected household premiums are optional and may come from a verified off-Exchange quote.
The census stays in this browser tab. This tool does not save it or send it to CMS. Export before leaving if you want to retain your work.
Where to get the Silver benchmark and shopping premium
- Use the employee’s exchange for an employee-only quote in the correct coverage year. Colorado: Connect for Health Colorado Estimate & Explore.
- Confirm home ZIP/county and age. Select on-Exchange plans only, filter Silver and sort by full monthly premium before subsidies. Record the lowest-cost available employee-only Silver plan, its source and year.
- Enter that amount as lcsp_monthly. Enter a separate verified household plan premium as selected_household_premium.
- Federal-platform markets: check the CMS employer LCSP tables. The page currently lists through 2026. Do not relabel 2026 data as 2027; use look-back modeling only when the employer safe-harbor basis is applicable.
CSV field guide
Required columns: employee_id, lcsp_monthly, benchmark_year. Add benchmark_source to evaluate affordability. Optional: employee_class, state, selected_household_premium, annual_w2 (projected full-year Box 1), hourly_rate, monthly_salary, spouse_count (0 or 1), child_count. Classes must be reviewed for permitted-class and minimum-size rules before implementation.
Affordability first. Budget next.
Uses 2026 one-person HHS poverty guidelines for 2027 planning: $15,960 mainland/DC, $19,950 Alaska and $18,360 Hawaii. Missing state defaults to mainland/DC. Benchmark look-back modeling is an employer safe-harbor assumption; Marketplace tax-credit eligibility uses its own rules. Full-year, 12-month coverage and 100% participation are assumed.
Choose a scenario to inspect.
Class contribution floors
Employee-level analysis
| Employee ID | Class | EE Silver benchmark | Max EE cost | EE contribution floor | EE allowance | Dependent support | Total allowance | Household premium | EE household cost | Monthly gap | Result |
|---|
How to read the results
Employee-only contribution floor = lowest-cost Silver premium minus the modeled maximum employee cost, never below zero. Maximum cost is rounded down and contribution floors up to the nearest cent. Dependent support is separate and is not used to fix an employee-only affordability gap.
Class floor scenario uses the highest calculated employee-only floor in each uploaded class, giving every modeled employee in that class the same base allowance. This is a planning approach; permitted classes, minimum sizes, same-terms rules, eligibility and plan documents still require review. Missing inputs make the class floor incomplete.
Budget is the full offered allowance plus administration, with one-time costs added to the annual total. Premium-based estimated reimbursement is shown separately and excludes other reimbursable expenses. Missing household premiums are not treated as zero-cost coverage.
Affordability is an employer safe-harbor estimate, not an employee subsidy decision or a penalty calculation. Non-ALEs may still model affordability and employee costs, but the employer shared-responsibility penalties do not apply solely because a row shows a gap. W-2 and rate-of-pay conditions, wage changes, partial-year eligibility and Medicare cases need separate review.
Sources: IRS Revenue Procedure 2026-26 · IRS ICHRA guidance · 2026 HHS poverty guidelines. Rules verified October 14, 2026.