Jun. 1 at 1:52 PM
KFF: Enrollment in the health law’s insurance exchanges is projected to drop by roughly 5M people this year relative to 2025 to 17.5M people
Premium payments from enrollees increased by an avg of +58% from
$113 to
$178/month. That’s lower than the +114% increase KFF projected last fall b/c many people bought cheaper, higher-deductible plans rather than staying w/ the same coverage.
Households w/ the steepest increases dropped ACA coverage at higher rates.
About 9.2M people signed up for “bronze” level plans, up from 7.3M in 2025. Bronze plans cost less up front but w/ high deductibles, they will cost more if people need to use the coverage.
As a result, avg deductibles increased by +37%, more than
$1,000/person to a record high of
$3,786 in 2026.
“This is the steepest increase in deductibles ever seen in this market,” KFF noted.
The Trump admin & conservative think tanks like the Paragon Health have downplayed the losses, saying they are mostly the result of a drop in fraudulent or improper enrollments.
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