Glossary
Metal levels
The ACA categories (Bronze, Silver, Gold, Platinum) that describe how you and the plan split costs. They reflect cost-sharing, not the quality of care.
The percentages behind the labels are called actuarial value: Bronze plans pay roughly 60% of an average population's covered costs, Silver about 70%, Gold about 80%, and Platinum about 90%. The label comes from a federal calculation, not from the network or the quality of the doctors. If you're curious what the math looks like behind the scenes, the actuaries behind Visuary built a free actuarial value calculator that reads a plan's summary document and works out its metal tier.