Your Obamacare premium is jumping by double digits again as enrollment opens — are insurers to blame, or Congress?

This follows a median bump of 20% in 2026, adding up 35% in just two years — if you’re lucky. KFF notes that only one insurer plans to lower premiums. Many will raise their rates by much more, some as much as 54%.

Healthinsurance.org mapped the increases from state to state, with Arizona at the high end (27.9%).

These increases are making Obamacare increasingly unaffordable for many of the people it was designed to help, including retirees who are too young for Medicare.

Since Obamacare was introduced, the number of 50 to 64-year-olds without health insurance plummeted 50%. The double-digit premium increases put them at risk of losing health insurance again.

Here’s a look at what, and who, is behind the price hikes.

Congress, cancelled policies and healthcare costs drive hikes

The ACA Marketplace is federally or state-regulated depending on where you live, but U.S. Congress decisions have an impact on the program nationwide.

When the Biden administration introduced tax credits to subsidize people’s ACA Marketplace premiums in 2021, enrollment soared from 12 million people to an all-time high of 24.3 million in 2025.

Then the Trump administration killed those federal subsidies at the end of 2025, leading to a price shock on Jan. 1, 2026, particularly for middle-income Americans. This was the so-called subsidy cliff.

Some people still qualify for subsidies based on income, specifically individuals making $15,960 to $62,600 a year (up to $63,840 in 2027). Likewise a family with a household income of $33,000 and $128,600 a year (or $132,000 in 2027) still qualifies for ACA Marketplace premium subsidies.

But anyone earning more than that is disqualified and has to pony up more for their ACA Marketplace coverage. The AARP projected that 4.8 million Americans aged 50 to 64 would be hard hit. Not surprisingly, 4.6 million people have cancelled their plans since June 2025.

As more people (particularly younger, healthier individuals) cancel coverage, those who remain in the ACA Marketplace due to their medical needs pay even higher premiums.

After all, healthcare costs aren’t going down. Insurers expect the cost of hospital care, healthcare services and medications, especially GLP-1s, to rise 10% next year. This compounds the vicious cycle of premium increases.

Just as costs drive enrollees to opt out, they are driving insurers to drop coverage for certain healthcare services and medications (like GLP-1s). Some are dropping out of the ACA Marketplace altogether.

According to Becker’s Payers, a health insurance trade publication, 12 big-name insurers Including Cigna and Providence Health Plan will either exit the ACA Marketplace entirely in 2027 or in specific states.

The loss of competition is not helping keep premiums down.