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Did the Affordable Care Act Make Health Care More Affordable?

The expiration of the ACA’s enhanced premium tax credits at the start of 2026, combined with rising insurer premiums, put a spotlight on health care affordability that extends beyond Marketplace enrollees. KFF’s Cynthia Cox examines the ACA’s record and the broader underlying question it raises: what’s a fair price for Americans people to pay for health care?

The ACA MarketplaceS

In Preliminary Rate Filings, ACA Marketplace Insurers Largely Propose Double-Digit Premium Increase For 2027, Following a Steep Climb This Year 

ACA Marketplace insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 14% for 2027— indicating a likely second consecutive year of double-digit increases, according to a new analysis of preliminary rate filings in 16 states and DC. If these increases hold, typical premiums for insurers participating in the ACA Marketplaces would jump by more than one-third between 2025 and 2027.

The Average Marketplace Deductible Grew by About $1,000 Per Person in 2026, With More Enrollees Shifting to Higher-Deductible Plans as Enhanced Tax Credits Expired

The average Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace deductible experienced the steepest increase in history—growing by 37% or over $1,000, from $2,759 in 2025 to $3,786 in 2026 as enhanced premium tax credits expired, according to a new KFF analysis. After the enhanced tax credits ended, many Marketplace shoppers shifted toward lower-premium, higher-deductible plans.

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  • Health Care and the 2016 Debates

    News Release

    In his latest column for The Wall Street Journal’s Think Tank, Drew Altman discusses the lack of attention to health in the primary debates and last week’s Democratic forum in South Carolina. All previous columns by Drew Altman are available online.

  • Compare Key Elements of ACA Repeal and Replace Proposals with New Interactive Tool

    News Release

    President Trump and Republicans in Congress have committed to repealing and replacing the Affordable Care Act. A new interactive tool from the Kaiser Family Foundation enables users to create side-by-side comparisons of major ACA alternative plans, now including 2017 proposals from Sen. Rand Paul and from Sen. Bill Cassidy. With the tool, users can compare the plans’ approaches to more than a dozen key areas of health policy, including individual insurance market rules, requirements and…

  • Kaiser Health Tracking Poll: February 2016

    Feature

    The February Kaiser Health Tracking Poll finds Americans are divided on possible changes to the current health care system with 36 percent of Americans saying policymakers should build on the existing law to improve affordability and access to care, 16 percent saying they would like to see the health care law repealed and not replaced, 13 percent saying the current law should be repealed and replaced with a Republican-sponsored alternative, and 24 percent saying the…

  • Why Deductibles Would Rise Under the GOP Health Care Plan

    From Drew Altman

    This inaugural Drew Altman column for Axios examines how the GOP House bill would impact deductibles for people who buy insurance in the non-group market. A KFF analysis for the column shows deductibles in a typical non-group plan would be about $1550 higher under the American Health Care Act compared to the Affordable Care Act.

  • Drug Overdose Deaths Rose During the COVID-19 Pandemic, Particularly Among Black and American Indian/Alaska Native People

    News Release

    Drug overdose deaths rose during the early part of the COVID-19 pandemic, with some of the biggest jumps occurring among people of color, a new KFF analysis finds. The analysis breaks out drug overdose deaths by race and ethnicity for the first nine months of 2020, when the pandemic triggered widespread shutdowns and job losses, to the same period in each of the two prior years. Between 2018 and 2020, drug overdose death rates increased…

  • Most Americans Report a Personal Connection to Those Who Have Abused Prescription Painkillers; Whites More Likely To Be Affected Than Blacks or Hispanics

    News Release

    Poll Finds 9% Say a Family Member or Close Friend Died of an Overdose; 27% Say Either They or Someone Close to Them Has Been Addicted On the ACA This Month, 45 Percent View the Law Unfavorably and 38 Percent View It Favorably With prescription painkiller abuse garnering more attention from the media and policymakers, the latest Kaiser Family Foundation Health Tracking Poll finds most Americans have a personal connection to the issue. In total,…