Your 2027 ACA Premium Ask Is In: A Median 15%, Stacked on Last Year's 58% Jump.

Update, August 9, 2026: The filings are no longer partial. KFF’s analysis, updated August 3, now covers 276 insurers across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. The median proposed 2027 increase is 15%, the second-highest ask since 2018. Requests run from a single decrease of 1% up to 54%. Roughly 63% of insurers landed between 10% and 25%, the 25th percentile is 11%, the 75th is 22%, and 51 insurers asked for more than 25%. Insurers put the median medical trend at 10%, above the 8% that has been typical, and attribute another 4 to 6.7 percentage points to the expiration of the enhanced subsidies. The original post below, written when the tracker was still filling in state by state, is otherwise accurate.

If you buy your health plan on the ACA marketplace, the 2027 rate requests are all in now, and they are ugly. Across 276 insurers in every state and DC, the median ask is a 15% increase. UnitedHealthcare asked New York regulators for 52%. Most state regulators finalize the rest through August. Open enrollment for 2027 coverage begins November 1, 2026.

This is the second bad year in a row, and it will hurt more than the first.

The enhanced premium tax credits expired December 31, 2025. Those were the pandemic-era subsidies from the 2021 American Rescue Plan and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act, and they kept marketplace premiums flat or falling for four years. They are gone. Congress has left them expired.

The result for 2026 was already brutal. Per KFF, the average monthly premium payment across marketplace enrollees jumped 58%, from $113 to $178. Total effectuated enrollment fell from 22.3 million in 2025 to an estimated 17.5 million in 2026. About 4.8 million people dropped coverage. The cohort earning between four and five times the federal poverty level, roughly $60,000 to $75,000 for a single filer, saw a 44% drop in sign-ups. Most of that group just went without.

What the 2027 filings say so far

Insurers are filing on top of the 2026 base, not the 2025 base. That is the trap.

The full set is in, and the direction was never in doubt. Median ask: 15%. Range: one insurer filed a 1% decrease, another filed 54%. Fifty-one insurers asked for more than 25%. UnitedHealthcare’s 52% in New York turns out to be near the top of a crowded field rather than an outlier.

Insurers are citing rising hospital and drug prices, GLP-1 costs, labor costs, and a sicker remaining risk pool as healthier people drop out. The median medical trend in the filings is 10%, up from the 8% that has been normal. Another 4 to 6.7 percentage points is attributed directly to the enhanced subsidies expiring. Congress has not brought them back and nobody expects it to this year.

Here’s what they don’t tell you. The percentage is not the number that hits your bank account. KFF ran a 40-year-old in Indianapolis earning $65,000. In 2025, with enhanced credits, that person paid $316 a month. In 2026, credits gone, $477. Projected 2027: $546. That is $158 more a month, a 41% increase in what comes out of pocket, over two years, for the same person buying the same kind of plan.

At $65,000, that filer is just past 400% of the federal poverty level. That is the subsidy cliff. The credit does not phase out gently. It cuts off, and you pay full sticker on both sides of it.

Three moves this month

Log into HealthCare.gov (or your state marketplace) and confirm your current 2026 monthly premium after credits. That is your baseline. Screenshot it. When the 2027 renewal letter shows up in October, you want the two numbers side by side.

If your household income is anywhere close to 400% FPL, run the MAGI math. A traditional 401(k), traditional IRA, or HSA contribution cuts your modified adjusted gross income dollar for dollar. If you can drop under the cliff, you get a credit. If you cannot, you pay retail.

Know your alternative. If your spouse has employer coverage with open enrollment this fall, adding you may qualify as a special enrollment event on their side. Some employers only run a two-week window. Ask HR today what dates that window opens.

File this away. State regulators finalize 2027 rates in August. Open enrollment begins November 1. Do not wait for the renewal letter to think about it. The letter is the last step, not the first.

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