Insurers are warning of the biggest premium hikes in a decade. Why? Because Congress is gutting health care to fund tax breaks for the wealthy. The numbers are in and the consequences are real.

If you buy health insurance through the Affordable Care Act (ACA) Marketplace, brace yourself. Premiums for 2026 are about to surge. In some states like New York, insurers are proposing rate hikes as high as 66%. In others, regulators say these are the steepest increases they’ve seen in over a decade. 

The cause? Congress and the President rushed through the largest cuts to health care in history—cuts that will raise costs for millions of people—so they can give even more tax breaks to the ultra-wealthy and big corporations.

Let’s be clear: insurers don’t get a free pass here. Their early filings reveal how quickly they’ll hike premiums or exit markets altogether when the political winds shift. But this spike in rates isn’t just about corporate behavior—it’s about federal policy choices.

Three changes are colliding: 
  • The expiration of enhanced premium tax credits (ePTCs) at the end of 2025;
  • A newly finalized “Marketplace Integrity” rule that makes it harder for people with low incomes to get and stay covered and increases everyone’s out-of-pocket costs; and
  • A budget reconciliation bill (H.R. 1) that fast-tracks coverage restrictions and red tape to help fund tax giveaways.

Insurers are already adjusting. In Maryland, Optimum Choice warned that healthier enrollees will leave the market as subsidies vanish, leading to what they bluntly called “increased market morbidity in 2026.” In Vermont, Blue Cross Blue Shield said that nearly a third of its proposed 23% rate hike is due to the loss of premium tax credits alone.

Meanwhile, Wakely Consulting projects that 11 to 14 million people could lose coverage especially in states that never expanded Medicaid, where enrollment losses could hit as high as 64%. As healthy people drop coverage, the people left behind will face even higher premiums. These coverage losses and double-digit premium hikes will be made even worse as the cuts Congress passed take effect. 

Here’s the bitter irony: these cuts don’t save money—they shift costs onto states and people who can least afford it, all so the wealthiest households and corporations can enjoy yet another tax break. This is not an accident. It’s a strategy. 

Congress and the president had a clear choice: protect people’s access to health care or protect the profits of the ultra-rich. Right now, they’re choosing the latter. 

This doesn’t have to happen. Lawmakers can extend the premium tax credits, reject harmful rules, and reinvest in the coverage millions rely on. But the window for Congress is closing and the consequences of inaction will land directly in your inbox when your 2026 premium bill arrives.