How much are ACA premiums going up in 2027?

Insurers proposed a median increase of 15% for 2027, according to KFF, the second straight year of double-digit hikes after a 20% median increase in 2026. State averages range from 3% in Vermont to 27.9% in Arizona.

Why are ACA plans so expensive now?

Rising medical prices are the main driver. The enhanced tax credits that capped many people's payments also expired after 2025, so enrollees paid 58% more on average in 2026, and healthier people dropping coverage pushes prices up further.

When is ACA open enrollment for 2027?

On HealthCare.gov, open enrollment runs from November 1, 2026, to January 15, 2027. Pick a plan by December 15 for coverage starting January 1. Some states that run their own marketplaces set different deadlines.

Health insurance premiums are headed higher again for ACA marketplace plans

The median increase is 15%, on top of last year's 20%, and the extra federal help that softened the blow is gone. Here's the increase in every state.

Open enrollment for 2027 health plans on the Affordable Care Act marketplaces starts Sunday, November 1, and the prices are going up again. Insurers proposed a median premium increase of 15% for next year, according to KFF, which reviewed filings from 276 insurers in every state and Washington, D.C. "This is the second consecutive year of double-digit premium hikes," the health research group said. The median finalized increase for 2026 was 20%.

A plan that rose by the median both years would go from $500 a month in 2025 to $600 in 2026 and about $690 in 2027. That's a 38% jump in two years.

The increases vary a lot by state. Arizona's average is 27.9%, and 13 states are above 20%. Vermont, Iowa, and New York are at 6% or less, according to a state-by-state tracker from healthinsurance.org. In New York, regulators cut insurers' requests from 20.6% down to 6%, the Department of Financial Services said. The full list is at the bottom of this story.

The bigger problem is what people pay. Most marketplace customers get a federal tax credit that covers part of the premium. From 2021 through 2025, extra-large credits capped what many people paid and extended help to middle-income buyers. Those enhanced credits expired at the end of 2025, and Congress didn't renew them. The House passed a three-year extension in January, but it hasn't become law.

The result showed up fast. After the credits ended, what enrollees actually paid in premiums rose 58% on average, even though many switched to cheaper bronze plans, and deductibles rose 37%, or more than $1,000 per person, KFF found. Enrollment fell from a high of 22.1 million in 2025 to 19.2 million in February 2026, the first drop since President Trump's first term. The administration attributes much of that decline to removing improper and "phantom" enrollments, according to the Department of Health and Human Services.

People who stayed are feeling it. In a KFF survey of marketplace enrollees earlier this year, half of returning customers said their health care costs were "a lot higher," and 55% said they had cut or planned to cut spending on food or other basic household expenses. About one in 10 had dropped their ACA coverage and were uninsured.

Who gets hit hardest. People who earn too much for any tax credit pay the full sticker price. That cutoff is 400% of the poverty level, about $63,000 a year for one person or $129,000 for a family of four, the Associated Press reported. Unsubsidized enrollees in states that use HealthCare.gov are expected to pay more than $500 more on average in 2027, and the oldest could face increases of more than $2,000 for a benchmark silver plan, KFF estimates. President Trump has promised one-time $500 checks to about 1 million of those 2026 enrollees, though KFF says it's unclear what legal authority exists to send them.

Higher prices can feed on themselves. "When the healthy people leave, the prices go up," Stacey Pogue, a senior research fellow at Georgetown University's Center on Health Insurance Reforms, told the AP. Insurers estimate the loss of the enhanced credits is adding roughly 4 percentage points to 2027 increases, on top of rising medical prices, according to KFF.

Fewer choices in some places. Eleven insurers plan to leave the marketplaces in some or all states for 2027, while seven are entering new states, KFF's insurer tracker shows. Cigna says it "will no longer offer Individual and Family medical plans as of January 1, 2027," which affects more than 350,000 people in the 11 states where it sells them. If your insurer is leaving, you'll need to pick a new plan.

What to do before you renew. The HealthCare.gov window runs from November 1 to January 15, and you have to pick a plan by December 15 for coverage that starts January 1, according to HealthCare.gov. A federal court in June threw out a rule that would have shortened that window. A few things worth checking:

Don't let it auto-renew without looking. Prices and plans change, and the cheapest plan last year may not be this year.
Use this year's income. Tax credits are based on what you expect to earn in 2027, not last year, HealthCare.gov says. With credits, people below the cutoff pay from 2.15% to 10.22% of income for a benchmark silver plan in 2027, under IRS rules.
Look at silver if your income is lower. Extra help with deductibles and copays is available only on silver plans.
Watch the deductible, too. The out-of-pocket maximum for an individual plan rises to $12,000 in 2027, according to healthinsurance.org.

Here are the average 2027 rate increases by state, before subsidies, as tracked by healthinsurance.org as of mid-October. "Final" means regulators have approved the rates. Some states use a partial weighting of insurers' enrollment.

State	Average 2027 increase	Status
Arizona	27.9%	Final
Alabama	25%	Final
New Mexico	24.4%	Final
Kansas	24.2%	Proposed
Alaska	22.9%	Proposed
Montana	22.6%	Final
Washington	22.2%	Final
South Carolina	22.1%	Final
Mississippi	21.8%	Proposed
Wisconsin	21.7%	Final
Oregon	21.6%	Final
Georgia	20.7%	Final
Oklahoma	20.2%	Proposed
New Jersey	19.8%	Final
Nevada	18.8%	Final
Kentucky	18.7%	Final
New Hampshire	18.4%	Proposed
West Virginia	18.3%	Proposed
Louisiana	18.1%	Final
Minnesota	17.7%	Final
Indiana	17.5%	Final
North Dakota	17.1%	Final
Delaware	16.5%	Final
Ohio	16.3%	Final
Pennsylvania	16%	Final
Virginia	15.8%	Final
Maine	14.8%	Final
Maryland	14.6%	Final
Michigan	14.5%	Final
Illinois	14.1%	Final
North Carolina	14%	Final
Nebraska	13.3%	Proposed
Texas	13.1%	Proposed
Hawaii	12.7%	Final
Tennessee	12.7%	Proposed
Missouri	12.5%	Proposed
Rhode Island	12.4%	Final
Idaho	12%	Final
Wyoming	11.3%	Proposed
Connecticut	11.2%	Final
Massachusetts	10.8%	Final
Florida	10.4%	Final
South Dakota	10.4%	Final
Colorado	10%	Final
Washington, D.C.	9.9%	Final
California	9.9%	Proposed
Arkansas	7.6%	Proposed
Utah	6.7%	Final
New York	6%	Final
Iowa	5.7%	Final
Vermont	3%	Final