Open enrollment for 2027 health coverage opened on November 1, and shoppers facing rising health insurance premiums are walking into a second straight year of double-digit price increases. Premiums for the benchmark silver plan will rise 13 percent on average for 2027, according to a KFF analysis of federal plan data published on October 30.
The benchmark plan is the second-lowest-cost silver plan in an area, and it matters because it is the plan used to set the size of federal help with premiums. The 13 percent rise follows a 26 percent jump from 2025 to 2026, which means benchmark premiums are up about 42 percent on average across the two years, according to KFF, the nonpartisan health research group.
Open enrollment on HealthCare.gov runs from November 1, 2026, through January 15, 2027. Shoppers must sign up by December 15 for coverage that starts on January 1, while those who enroll between December 16 and January 15 will generally see coverage start on February 1.
Health insurance premiums 2027: where prices are rising most
The increase is not even across the country. In the states that use HealthCare.gov, benchmark premiums are rising 11 percent for 2027, after a 30 percent rise last year. In states that run their own marketplaces, they are rising 16 percent, after roughly 17 percent last year, according to the KFF analysis.
State figures show how wide the range can be. In North Carolina, approved increases for individual plans range from 8.35 percent to 27.36 percent for 2027, according to the North Carolina Department of Insurance.
Insurers point to rising medical care costs as the main reason for the increases, according to KFF. Changes in the risk pool, meaning who signs up and how much care they are expected to need, account for about 4 percentage points of the rise, according to the analysis.
The subsidy cliff returns for 2027
This is also the second year without the enhanced premium tax credits that expired at the end of 2025. Those credits, first passed in 2021, capped what middle-income buyers paid and extended help to people earning more than four times the federal poverty level.
With them gone, the original Affordable Care Act rules apply again, including a hard cutoff. For 2027 coverage, households above 400 percent of the federal poverty level get no subsidy at all. That cutoff is $63,840 for a single person, $86,560 for a couple, and $109,280 for a family of three, according to KFF Health News reporting.
People above that line will be particularly hard hit, KFF notes, because they must pay the full cost of coverage. Most enrollees do get a subsidy that will cushion the impact of the increases, but the loss of the enhanced credits changes the math for millions of households near the cutoff.
What the government says about affordability
The Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, which runs HealthCare.gov, released its plan year 2027 fact sheet on October 30. It did not give an average premium change, but said more than 75 percent of HealthCare.gov shoppers will continue to have access to premiums at or below $50 a month in 2027, after tax credits.
That figure counts premiums after subsidies, and the fact sheet does not say what deductibles those plans carry. Low-premium plans are typically bronze plans, and the average bronze deductible in 2026 was about $7,500, according to KFF figures cited by AARP. Shoppers are therefore advised to compare total costs, including deductibles, not just the monthly premium.
The federal cap on out-of-pocket costs is also rising. The most a plan can make a person pay out of pocket in a year rises to $12,000 for an individual and $24,000 for a family in 2027, up from $10,600 and $21,200, according to CMS guidance.
Insurers leaving and entering the market
The marketplace itself is shifting. As of late October, 11 insurers had announced they will leave the marketplace in at least one state for 2027, while seven are entering new states, according to KFF’s insurer tracker. Cigna is leaving the individual market in all 11 states where it sells, both on and off the exchange.
Paid marketplace enrollment fell to 19.2 million by February 2026, down 12 percent, according to KFF, a decline that reflects both higher prices and the loss of the enhanced credits.
What shoppers should check before enrolling
- Do not let your plan auto-renew without checking it. Log in at HealthCare.gov or your state exchange and update your income.
- Compare total costs, including deductibles and out-of-pocket maximums, not just the monthly premium.
- Check whether your doctors and prescriptions are covered by the plan you are considering.
- Enroll by December 15 for coverage starting January 1. Open enrollment closes January 15 in most states, and runs to January 31 in California, New York, New Jersey, Rhode Island, and Washington, D.C., according to HealthInsurance.org.
- If your income is near the subsidy cutoff, check carefully whether a small change in reported income affects your eligibility.
For millions of Americans who buy their own health insurance, the 2027 open enrollment period is a test of how much they are willing, and able, to pay for coverage. Prices are up sharply for a second year, subsidies are less generous than they were two years ago, and the choices shoppers make in the next ten weeks will shape their health costs for all of 2027.
Sources: KFF analysis of finalized 2027 rates published October 30, 2026; Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services plan year 2027 fact sheet; HealthCare.gov open enrollment dates.