Double digits again. That is the new normal.
A new look at rate filings suggests health insurers want a massive price hike for next year. The Kaiser Family Foundation analyzed data from 16 states and D.C. and found the median proposed premium increase for 2027 sits at 14%. Seventy-seven insurers filed these numbers. They did it before the July 15 cutoff.
If this holds, typical ACA premiums will have climbed more than one-third in just two years. Not good.
Insurers point to three culprits. Rising costs for actual medical services. Federal regulatory shifts. And the biggest one: the end of the extra government help people used to get.
Remember the enhanced tax credits? They vanished on December 31, 2025. The Republican-controlled Congress and the Trump administration refused to keep them alive.
The result is immediate and painful. Out-of-pocket costs jumped an average of 58% in 2026. Deductibles went up roughly $1,000 per person. People are leaving the system in droves. Over two million Americans lost coverage this year. The market is shaking apart.
Insurers are building rates on top of a sicker risk pool, compounding the pain into next year.
Who is leaving? Big players are exiting or shrinking. Cigna said it will pull out of the Obamacare market entirely. About 369,000 people across 11 states will need new plans by 2027. Centene saw its enrollment collapse. It dropped by 2 million members in just a few quarters, falling to 3.5 million from over 5.5 million the prior year. UnitedHealthcare is down too. They went from 1.7 million members last year to 1.4 million this year. CVS Health quit the individual insurance game altogether a year ago. A million Aetna members were left looking for homes then.
Why do prices rise? Basic economics. When the healthy people leave, only the sick remain. Insurers call this an adverse selection. They have to charge more to cover the expensive treatments. And since everyone is already paying more due to lost tax credits, the base for these 2027 hikes is already bloated.
Is there any relief on the horizon? Unlikely.
The cycle feeds itself. Higher premiums drive out the healthy. The risk pool gets worse. Insurers demand even more money to survive. It feels like a loop with no off-switch. We wait and see who else folds next.
