https://www.npr.org/sections/shots-health-news/2025/07/18/nx-s1-5471281/aca-health-insurance-premiums-obamacare-bbb-kff
Both are citing this -
https://www.healthsystemtracker.org/brief/individual-market-insurers-requesting-largest-premium-increases-in-more-than-5-years/
There is apparently a set of tax credits that were enacted (am thinking under Biden) that expire at the end of this year (unless Congress extends them).
Some of the factors that insurers cite as contributing to higher rates next year include:
Enhanced premium tax credits that make coverage more affordable will expire at the end of 2025, driving up out-of-pocket premium payments by over 75% on average. This is expected to cause healthier enrollees to drop their coverage and create a sicker risk pool. An earlier Peterson-KFF Health System Tracker analysis showed the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits raised proposed rates by an additional 4 percent, on average.
I am in the federal employees "FEHB" plan (as a retiree) so I don't know all the details about the ACA plans but IIRC when it was devised and tweaked, there were different levels, i.e., "bronze", "silver", and "gold" and it looks like the KFF article is suggesting that people in the higher tiers may end up dropping into lower ones in order to afford the new premiums, when the tax credits expire in addition to the premium increases.
There has been recent chatter from some GOP Senators about doing something about the tax credits (actually considering extending them due to the mid-terms) -
https://www.democraticunderground.com/10143496895
Some more from the above-linked OP's article -
(snip)
A handful of Republican senators have expressed an openness to extending the premium tax credit, according to remarks in Punchbowl News.
North Carolina Senator Thom Tillis, who recently voted against Trump's "One Big Beautiful Bill Act" due to concerns about Medicaid cuts, told the publication it would be a "perfect opportunity for us to move past the reconciliation process, which is clearly a partisan exercise." Tillis has already announced he won't run for reelection in 2026, making North Carolina a top target for Democrats in trying to slim the 53-47 GOP majority in the upper chamber.
Senators Lisa Murkowski and Dan Sullivan, both of Alaska, expressed support for bipartisan talks to extend the credit, while Senator Josh Hawley of Missouri said Republicans must do something to "allow people to afford health care."
"The cost of insurance on the exchanges is just astronomical. That's why so many people are on Medicaid," he said.
Thune told the publication that leadership is having conversations about how to deal with the expiration, but leaders have not said for sure whether they support the extension.
(snip
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