Obamacare premiums projected to climb 13% as medical costs keep rising

Health insurance premiums under Obamacare are expected to jump by double digits next year, adding to the strain of rising medical costs for millions of Americans.

The federal government has released proposed insurance rates for 30 states served by federal marketplaces, and a KFF analysis says average premiums in the Affordable Care Act marketplace are on track to rise 13 percent next year.

Premiums for employer-sponsored plans are also projected to increase by about 10 percent in 2027, while coverage for federal employees is expected to rise by more than 10 percent.

A KFF survey found that health care costs remain a major financial worry for voters ahead of the midterm elections. Roughly 60 percent of registered voters said they were concerned about paying for care for themselves and their families.

The Trump administration has sent some Obamacare enrollees $500 checks as a one-time effort to help offset insurance expenses. Even so, overall medical costs continue to move higher, with industry analysts citing several drivers behind the increases.

According to The New York Times, higher hospital prices, increased payments tied to changes in consumer protection rules affecting doctor compensation, and the expanding use of artificial intelligence have all helped push costs upward. Some employers have also pointed to costly specialty drugs, including GLP-1s and cancer treatments, as a factor in rising bills.

In the previous year, premiums rose by an average of 26 percent. KFF estimates show enrollment dropped by nearly five million people as of June.

Open enrollment for health insurance is set to begin soon. An estimated 19.2 million people were enrolled in Obamacare coverage earlier this year, and about 10 percent of them are older consumers earning more than $63,840 who have faced premium increases of more than $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 the rising costs. Senator Mike Lee wrote on X that Democrats would argue soaring premiums are reason to expand the same policies that make Obamacare ineffective and unaffordable, adding that they favor a single-payer system run by Washington bureaucrats. He said that would make things worse and urged voters to reject it and vote Republican.