For the nearly 100,000 Kentuckians who signed up for plans on kynect this year, the state’s health insurance marketplace, premium costs are on track to skyrocket at the end of this year. This hike is due to Congress failing to extend existing subsidies on marketplace plans, which have lowered costs since 2021 and are set to expire, and because of changes made to marketplace plans through the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA). Combined, these two policy decisions will lead to subsidized premiums more than doubling in many cases, and have already led to rattled insurance carriers increasing the unsubsidized cost of insurance by up to 37% for Kentuckians seeking coverage — more than 10 times higher than in recent years. As many as 18,000 Kentuckians would have to leave the marketplace as a result of the higher costs and most of them would become uninsured.
Because both causes of this spike in health care costs are due to Congressional decisions, it is up to Congress to work quickly to address the problem before open enrollment for the 2026 plan year begins November 1. As Congress prepares to take action on the federal budget for the upcoming fiscal year that starts October 1, lawmakers should prioritize keeping the marketplace coverage option affordable, particularly given the seismic cuts to Medicaid passed earlier this year that will take health care away from more than 200,000 Kentuckians.
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