Affordable Care Act

The ACA MarketplaceS

Change in February effectuated enrollment, by state, 2025-2026

How Has ACA Marketplace Enrollment Changed Across States in 2026?

ACA Marketplace enrollment fell this year in every state except New Mexico, which was the only state to fully replace the enhanced premium tax credits that expired last year with a state-funded subsidy, according to a new KFF analysis of effectuated enrollment data. The Marketplace enrollment decline—the first in seven years—follows several years of rapid enrollment growth and coincides with the end of the enhanced federal subsidies.

How Much and Why ACA Marketplace Premiums Are Going Up in 2027

ACA Marketplaces insurers are proposing a median premium increase of 15% in 2027, according to KFF’s updated analysis of 276 insurers with publicly available filings across all 50 states and the District of Columbia. This is the second consecutive year of double-digit premium hikes. Last year’s median nationwide proposed rate change was 18%, and the median finalized rate change was 20%. While this proposed rate change is lower than last year, it represents the second-highest requested rate change since 2018, as premium growth had been relatively flat in this market for several years.

About the ACA

Promotional image for KFF video How Affordable is the Affordable Care Act

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?

Stay informed.

Stay informed.

Filter

721 - 730 of 2,787 Results

  • Approved Changes in Indiana’s Section 1115 Medicaid Waiver Extension

    Issue Brief

    On February 1, 2018, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS) approved an amended extension of Indiana’s Healthy Indiana Program 2.0 (HIP 2.0) Section 1115 demonstration waiver. Indiana’s waiver initially implemented the ACA’s Medicaid expansion from February, 2015 through January, 2018 by modifying Indiana’s pre-ACA limited coverage expansion waiver (HIP 1.0). Unlike other states that implemented the ACA’s Medicaid expansion through a waiver, Indiana’s demonstration also changes the terms of coverage for non-expansion adults…

  • Explaining Health Care Reform: Questions About the Extension of Dependent Coverage to Age 26

    Issue Brief

    The new health reform law requires private health insurers that offer dependent coverage to children to allow young adults up to age 26 to remain on their parent's insurance plan. This provision is among the first in the reform law to take effect, and it increases the availability of insurance to a population that currently has a high uninsured rate. This short summary answers basic questions about the dependent coverage expansion and explains how the…

  • The Health Workforce Dream Team: Who Will Provide the Care?

    Event Date:
    Event

    Many providers and policymakers envision team-based care as an important way to improve quality and maximize resources. The “dream team” includes nurses and many other non-physician providers. But how will we ensure enough health care workers for a growing, aging population with ever-increasing chronic care needs? This December 2 briefing, sponsored by the Alliance for Health Reform and the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, explored the question, focusing on a new report from the Institute of…

  • Ensuring Access to Care in Medicaid Under Health Reform

    Issue Brief

    This paper examines the key issues raised in a December 2010 roundtable discussion of federal and state officials and experts convened by the Kaiser Commission on Medicaid and the Uninsured to examine important issues related to ensuring access to care in Medicaid under the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (ACA). The ACA expands Medicaid to reach millions of low-income uninsured Americans and, recognizing current serious access problems system-wide, takes significant steps to build capacity…

  • Preventing Chronic Disease: The New Public Health

    Event Date:
    Event

    There is a groundswell of activity in local communities to support healthier lifestyles and help people make long-lasting and sustainable changes that can reduce their risk for chronic diseases. A number of provisions in the health reform law are aimed directly at improving population health by addressing conditions where Americans live, learn, work, and play. Public health agencies across the nation are involved in promoting healthy life styles in their communities and the U.S. Department…

  • Pulling it Together: A Holiday Reminder on the Economy and Health Care

    Perspective

    With so much of the focus on the political dynamics of the health reform debate and a few hot button issues, I wonder if we have lost track of what propelled health care to the top domestic issue in the first place—people’s concerns about paying for health care in the middle of a deep recession. This gave health greater traction as a national issue and brought us our best chance at national health reform legislation…