{"id":938,"date":"2026-07-08T10:08:51","date_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:08:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=938"},"modified":"2026-07-08T10:08:51","modified_gmt":"2026-07-08T10:08:51","slug":"health-insurers-are-proposing-to-increase-premiums-again","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=938","title":{"rendered":"Health Insurers Are Proposing to Increase Premiums Again"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Rena Bumbray-Graves\u2019 doctors told her late last year to start using a CPAP machine at night. She was struggling to breathe from lung scarring caused by three pulmonary embolisms.<\/p>\n

Read more Ties to Graham Platner Could \u2018Haunt\u2019 a Replacement<\/a><\/p>\n

The 63-year-old from Woodbridge, Virginia, hasn\u2019t followed their advice \u2014 because she can\u2019t afford to rent one of the devices. She\u2019s been uninsured since January, after finding out the premium for her and her husband\u2019s health insurance marketplace plan would rise from $544 to more than $1,400 a month.<\/p>\n

Now, insurers are eyeing similarly hefty rate hikes for 2027.<\/p>\n

Dozens of insurers in 16 states and D.C. have proposed increasing next year\u2019s premiums by a median of 14%, according to a review<\/u><\/span> of initial rate filings by KFF, a nonpartisan health policy organization.<\/p>\n

Insurers have until July 15 to submit next year\u2019s premiums to state regulators to justify price changes. Most of the 77 insurers tracked by KFF requested increases between 10% and 20%, but 20 requested even higher increases.<\/p>\n

Last year, marketplace insurers across the country hiked premiums by a median of 20%. As a result, millions of Americans are facing similar circumstances to Bumbray-Graves\u2019, some fleeing the Affordable Care Act marketplaces under skyrocketing premiums and others sticking around only to foot much higher monthly payments.<\/p>\n

Roughly 19 million people still get<\/u><\/span> health insurance from the marketplaces created by former President Barack Obama\u2019s signature health care law, down from roughly 22 million last year. But enrollment could further atrophy if insurers follow through on what could be the second-highest premium hikes in nearly a decade.<\/p>\n

The KFF researchers wrote that if the insurers follow through, \u201ctypical premiums for insurers participating in the ACA Marketplaces will have jumped by more than one-third over a two-year period.\u201d<\/p>\n

Some insurers are eyeing the exits. Cigna is leaving all 11 state marketplaces it had participated in. The nonprofit Baylor Scott & White Health Plan is discontinuing coverage in Texas. Some plans in Indiana, Montana and Oregon have announced they\u2019re leaving the states\u2019 marketplaces.<\/p>\n

A spokesperson for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services said the administration doesn\u2019t anticipate any counties will be left without an insurance carrier \u2013 a concern the first Trump administration faced, but managed to avoid, in 2017 and 2018.<\/p>\n

The cost hikes and insurer exits are reminiscent of the early days of the Affordable Care Act marketplaces.<\/p>\n

The expiration of extra subsidies provided during the COVID-19 pandemic \u2014 which the Republican-led Congress refused to extend last year \u2014 is one driver of returning premium spikes, according to the KFF report.<\/p>\n

Other factors include rising costs for hospitalizations, physician visits and prescription drugs, including expensive GLP-1 drugs, and health worker shortages driving up labor costs, the researchers wrote.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have grave concerns about the future of the individual market, although no one should be surprised by the turn of events,\u201d said Ceci Connolly, president of the Alliance of Community Health Plans.<\/p>\n

The politics around the Affordable Care Act have flipped under the second Trump administration.<\/p>\n

Read more Democrats Are Drafting \u2018Project 2029\u2019<\/a><\/p>\n

For more than a decade, Democrats defended the marketplaces while Republicans cast them as unaffordable. That has reversed, with the Trump administration stressing that the majority of consumers can still get subsidies to help lower their monthly payments and blaming a much larger share of the enrollment declines on fraud than it has provided evidence for.<\/p>\n

The CMS spokesperson said the agency estimates as many as 2.6 million improper enrollments remain in the marketplaces. Fraud by agents and brokers was a problem during the Biden administration but it\u2019s unclear how big the problem remains.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Trump administration remains committed to safeguarding the program\u2019s long-term stability,\u201d the spokesperson said.<\/p>\n

Democrats are still calling for an extension of the extra subsidies and accusing the administration of undermining the marketplaces.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere\u2019s no flaw in the ACA,\u201d said Leslie Dach, founder of the Democratic-aligned advocacy group Protect Our Care who was a senior counselor at the Department of Health and Human Services during the Obama administration.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe flaw is with the Republicans who, despite all the politics and despite all the clear evidence that America is better off, wanna gut the thing,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Other Democrats involved in the crafting of the health care law also view it as a success, despite the bumps. For the first time, the marketplaces offered Americans without employer-sponsored or government insurance coverage a way to buy plans and get income-based subsidies to help afford them.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe had as many as 24 million people getting insurance coverage because of the ACA,\u201d said Massachusetts Institute of Technology professor Jonathan Gruber, referring to peak enrollment numbers right after the pandemic. \u201cThat\u2019s a pretty damn big success.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bumbray-Graves\u2019 husband, Cliff Graves, who has Type 2 diabetes, was able to get insured through his employer, but she said joining his plan would have been even more expensive than staying on their marketplace plan.<\/p>\n

So this year she has been paying out of pocket for nine medications to treat her chronic pain, blood clotting disorder and other conditions. She has been working with nonprofits to see if she can get help buying a CPAP machine.<\/p>\n

She said she doesn\u2019t have employer-sponsored coverage because she stays home to care for two wheelchair-bound relatives, an adopted sister and a great niece.<\/p>\n

\u201cNot allowing the people who are helping people to get insurance \u2014 a lot are going to be left without people who can help them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

Read more Judge Voids a \u2018Staggering\u2019 DOJ Bid for Georgia Election Workers\u2019 Personal Data<\/a><\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Affordable Care Act\u2019s health insurance marketplaces are seeing rising costs and a drop in insurers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":937,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-938","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-health-care"],"yoast_head":"\nHealth Insurers Are Proposing to Increase Premiums Again - Modern Home Journals<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=938\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Health Insurers Are Proposing to Increase Premiums Again - Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Affordable Care Act\u2019s health insurance marketplaces are seeing rising costs and a drop in insurers.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/modernhomejournals.com\/?p=938\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Modern Home Journals\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2026-07-08T10:08:51+00:00\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"admin\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"5 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"admin\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"headline\":\"Health Insurers Are Proposing to Increase Premiums Again\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T10:08:51+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938\"},\"wordCount\":925,\"commentCount\":0,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/88dd9f3cb8493cd84deb741e19fc6d9e-scaled.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Health Care\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938\",\"name\":\"Health Insurers Are Proposing to Increase Premiums Again - Modern Home Journals\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/88dd9f3cb8493cd84deb741e19fc6d9e-scaled.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2026-07-08T10:08:51+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/533de239efc09a2ab59959cc1bff86d0\"},\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/?p=938#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/88dd9f3cb8493cd84deb741e19fc6d9e-scaled.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/modernhomejournals.com\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/2026\\\/07\\\/88dd9f3cb8493cd84deb741e19fc6d9e-scaled.jpg\",\"width\":2560,\"height\":1467,\"caption\":\"FILE - This photo combo shows signage for health insurers Humana Inc., Aetna Inc., Cigna Corp., and Anthem Inc. 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