“Just give it time, cost will stabilize.” That’s what surrogates of the Affordable Care Act (ACA), also known as Obamacare, would tell news outlets when asked about the higher cost of the government program.
But prices are not going down, but instead expected to rise.
A new analysis by Kaiser Family Foundation (KFF) has found that median Obamacare premiums on the Affordable Care Act exchanges are expected to rise by 18% in 2026, with some increases reaching as high as 30%.
Here are the key points from the analysis:
– Most proposed premium increases fall between 12% and 27%.
– 66% of health plans are proposing hikes between 15% and 20%.
– 39% of health plans are seeking increases between 20% and 25%.
– Another 30% of health plans are requesting increases between 25% and 30%.
“The Affordable Care Act was never intended to make insurance affordable. As premiums rise 18, 20, or 30 percent in 2026, who will be able to afford this wealth redistribution scheme? We’ve long warned that the Affordable Care Act would drive consolidation, reduce competition, and raise costs. The ACA should be called the Unaffordable Care Act,” said Twila Brase, co-founder and President of Citizens’ Council for Health Freedom (CCHF).
CCHF says there are several reasons why the premiums are rising.
The ACA led to the mass consolidation of the health insurance industry into a relatively few health plans, resulting in reduced competitive pricing. The ACA placed no limit on how high premiums can go.
The ACA Medical Loss Ratio (MLR), which limits health plan spending on administration, may create incentives to increase costs, as found by the 2019 study “Regulating Markups in US Health Insurance.”
Rationalizing these increases as the end of expanded COVID subsidies is just an excuse to raise premiums.
