2026 Rate Changes

Every year, I spend months painstakingly tracking every insurance carrier rate filing (nearly 400 for 2025!) for the following year to determine just how much average insurance policy premiums on the individual market are projected to increase or decrease.

Carriers tendency to jump in and out of the market, repeatedly revise their requests, and the confusing blizzard of actual filing forms sometimes make it next to impossible to find the specific data I need.

I really only need three pieces of information for each carrier:

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (if IRA subsidies are extended):

Weighted Average Rate Increase: This represents the average rate increase, including modifications to prior year benefits and other pricing adjustments. The average premium increase to consumers, before reflecting changes in age is expected to be 16.3%.

The range of rate changes, before reflecting changes in age, which consumers will experience, is approximately 15.0% to 17.5%.

Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (if IRA subsidies AREN'T extended):

Weighted Average Rate Increase: This represents the average rate increase, including modifications to prior year benefits and other pricing adjustments. The average premium increase to consumers, before reflecting changes in age is expected to be 21.2%.

The range of rate changes, before reflecting changes in age, which consumers will experience, is approximately 20.1% to 22.2%.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of RI (if IRA subsidies are extended):

via the Indiana Dept. of Insurance:

Rate Watch is a convenient way for Hoosiers to access key data on Accident and Health rate filings submitted to the IDOI on or after May 1, 2010. Use it to determine which companies have requested rate changes, their originally requested overall % rate change, and the overall final % rate change approved. These are overall rate changes and are not individually specific. The table below is searchable and sortable. You can also download your filtered results by pressing the Save Excel File button at the bottom of the table. If you need the full data set, including a few additional columns, you can download the CSV file.

...INDIANA 2026 ACA FILINGS

The overall requested average rate increase for 2026 Indiana individual Marketplace plans is 20.5%. This year's requested rate increases were substantially impacted by the assumptions that for 2026 Congress will not continue enhanced premium subsidies available to Hoosiers under the American Rescue Plan Act and the Inflation Reduction Act and that Congress will fund Cost Sharing Reductions.

via the District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking:

This page contains proposed health plan rate information for the District of Columbia’s health insurance marketplace, DC Health Link, for plan year 2026.

The District of Columbia Department of Insurance, Securities and Banking (DISB) received 188 proposed health insurance plan rates for review from CareFirst BlueCross BlueShield, Kaiser Permanente and United Healthcare in advance of open enrollment for plan year 2026 on DC Health Link, the District of Columbia’s health insurance marketplace.

The three insurance companies filed proposed rates for individuals, families and small businesses for the 2026 plan year. Overall, 188 plans were filed, compared to 198 last year. The number of small group plans decreased from 171 to 161, and the number of individual plans remained at 27.

From the Arkansas Insurance Dept:

Health Insurance Rate Changes for 2026

Insurance companies offering individual and small group health insurance plans are required to file proposed rates with the Arkansas Insurance Department for review and approval before plans can be sold to consumers.

The Department reviews rates to ensure that the plans are priced appropriately. Under Arkansas Law (Ark. Code Ann. § 23-79-110), the Commissioner shall disapprove a rate filing if he/she finds that the rate is not actuarially sound, is excessive, is inadequate, or is unfairly discriminatory.

The Department relies on outside actuarial analysis by a member of the American Academy of Actuaries to help determine whether a rate filing is sound.

Below, you can review information on the proposed rate filings for Plan Year 2026 individual and small group products that comply with the reforms of the Affordable Care Act.

via the Iowa Insurance Division:

Iowa Code §505.19 requires the Commissioner to hold a public hearing on a proposed individual health insurance rate increase which exceeds the average annual health spending growth rate as published by the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services of the United State Department of Health and Human Services.  For 2026 the growth rate is 5.6%.

The Iowa Insurance Commissioner will hold a public hearing regarding the relevant rate increases on August 19, 2025.

The purpose will be to hear public comments on the proposed increase in the base premium rate. Consumers wishing to make a public comment at the hearing are encouraged to attend the hearing via the live webcast. 

All comments received will be considered public records and will be posted here. The Consumer Advocate will present the public comments received at the hearing.

Well, the Colorado Dept. of Regulatory Agencies isn't mincing words:

Chaos from Congressional Republicans Leads to Average Premium Increases of Over 28% for 2026

  • Average increases as high as 38% have been requested for the Western Slope, and insurance companies estimate nearly 100,000 Coloradans will lose their health insurance coverage

DENVER - The Colorado Division of Insurance (DOI), part of the Department of Regulatory Agencies (DORA) released the preliminary information on private health insurance plans for 2026 for the individual market (for people that don’t get coverage from an employer plan). The filings will be public once the DOI finishes the preliminary completeness review on or about Friday, July 18.

via the Illinois Dept. of Insurance:

Affordable Care Act (ACA) - Illinois Rate Filings

The chart below contains proposed rates for Plan Year 2026, which will be reviewed for compliance with federal and state requirements.

Please submit any comments on the initially proposed Plan Year 2026 rates to DOI.HealthRateReview@illinois.gov by July 11, 2025.

The good news is, the Illinois Insurance Dept. now provides a handy, simple table with the actual average rate changes as well as direct links to the actuarial memos & other filing forms for every carrier, which made it easy for me to plug in the effectuated enrollment & calculate the weighted average rate hikes for every carrier in both the individual and small group markets.

The bad news is, the actuarial memos themselves are heavily redacted, meaning I'm unable to see how much of the rate hikes are due to the IRA subsidies expiring, CSR payments being reinstated or Trump's tariffs.

via the Minnesota Commerce Dept:

Federal policy shifts drive higher 2026 rates for individual and small group health plans

State actions blunt increases tied to the reconciliation bills and policy direction of the federal government

St. Paul, MN: Health insurers have submitted their proposed increased rates to the Minnesota Department of Commerce for 2026 plans available to Minnesotans who buy individual or small group health insurance through MNsure or directly through insurers. These proposed rates apply to coverage starting Jan. 1, 2026, with open enrollment beginning Nov. 1, 2025.

Blue Care Network:

BCN is filing a year-over-year average rate increase for 2026 for all individual products that were offered in 2025 of 16.3%. Significant contributors to rate change are outlined in the table below:

  • Experience Restate 4.0%
  • Medical and pharmaceutical price and utilization trend 5.4%
  • ARPA Subsidy Expiration Impact 4.6%
  • Benefit Change and CSR -2.6%
  • Margin Impact 1.2%

...Incorporated in the above, BCN assumed an additional pharmacy price trend due to tariffs, as follows:

  • Generic +2.5%
  • Brand +10%
  • Specialty 0%
  • Total Impact +2.5%

...Consistent with the 2025 filing, BCN has assumed no CSR payments will be made by the federal government for 2026. Therefore, rates for Silver plans offered on exchange are 20.5% higher than if the federal government funded CSR subsidies.

Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan:

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