Fewer Americans bought health insurance through healthcare.gov or their state’s marketplace this year after legislation to extend enhanced premium tax credits failed to pass a Senate vote last year.
Those enhanced premium tax credits, first introduced in 2021, had reduced the cost of health insurance for millions of Americans over 400% of the federal poverty line.
According to data from the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, 22.8 million people enrolled in a healthcare Marketplace plan for 2026, a drop of about 1.4 million from the previous year.
A report by the Kaiser Family Foundation from late last year looked at state-by-state projected increases for a 60-year-old who made just over $62,000 per year with a benchmark Silver Plan.
In Washington, that person would see their monthly costs increase by 192%. In Idaho, the same individual would see a monthly rate increase of rroughly 134%.
Some states, including Washington, added measures to provide some cost relief for customers. However, in many cases, state-based subsidies are less than what customers received through the previously available federal tax credits.
Washington’s enrollment seems to have dropped by about 31,000 people from the year before. Idaho’s enrollment continued to grow, but the state saw a higher disenrollment rate and more people selecting lower premium, higher out-of-pocket plans, according to a report by Boise State Public Radio.
A different report by KFF found that just over half of the people losing their enhanced tax credits were between the ages of 50 and 64.
It also found that people who lost access to those enhanced tax credits were more likely to be self-employed and living in a rural area.
