Obamacare health insurance premiums are projected to rise by double digits next year, adding to the climbing health care costs facing millions of Americans, The Post Millennial reports.
On Friday, the federal government published proposed 2027 insurance rates for the 30 states with federally run marketplaces. According to an analysis by the health research organization KFF, average premiums in the Affordable Care Act marketplace are expected to rise 13 percent next year. Projections show employer plan premiums could rise about 10 percent in 2027, and premiums for federal workers are also set to climb more than 10 percent.
A KFF poll found that health care affordability remains a major economic worry for voters heading into the midterms, with about 60 percent of registered voters saying they were concerned about affording care for themselves and their families.
The Trump administration sent some Obamacare enrollees one-time $500 checks this month to help offset insurance costs, but broader medical expenses keep rising. According to The New York Times, factors include rising hospital prices, higher payments tied to changes in consumer protection laws affecting doctor pay, and the growing use of artificial intelligence. Some employers have also pointed to costly specialty prescriptions, such as GLP-1s and cancer drugs.
Premiums rose an average of 26 percent in 2026, and KFF estimates enrollment had fallen by nearly five million people as of June. Open enrollment begins Sunday. An estimated 19.2 million people were enrolled in Obamacare coverage early this year, roughly 10 percent of them older consumers earning more than $63,840 who faced premium increases of over $1,000 a month in 2026. “This is a really small number of people,” said Cynthia Cox, director of KFF’s ACA program. “But these people are getting hit the hardest by rising health care costs, and they don’t get any help.”
Republicans and Democrats have traded blame over rising costs. Republican Sen. Mike Lee wrote on X that Democrats want “a single-payer healthcare system run by DC bureaucrats,” adding, “That’d make everything worse.”
