Insurance operates via risk pools to smooth out the cost of providing coverage. An individual "negotiating" with an insurance company will be assumed to be high risk, and premiums will be astronomically high. The reason why the marketplaces exist is to create risk pools that smooth out premium costs

These partial benefits weren't necessary in the first place. The courts affirmed that the Administration could have used their legal transfer authority to provide full benefits, but they chose not to do so.

Nearly 5.4 million households will receive only $12, the minimum benefit for households with 1 or 2 members under USDA’s plan. But this appears to violate SNAP’s regulations, which require these households to receive the typical minimum benefit of $24.

Nearly 1.2 million households will get $0 for November under USDA’s plan, because the benefit reduction will be more than their typical monthly benefit amount. Almost 5 million people live in these households, about 1 in 9 SNAP participants.

We estimate that USDA’s plan will result in a roughly 60% cut in average benefits. Because of how the SNAP benefit calculation works, USDA's plan to cut maximum benefits for each household size by 50% results in a deeper cut to average benefits—and a much deeper cut than needed.