FACT SHEET:
Plan Year 2026 Marketplace Plans and Prices Fact SheetSource:
Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), released October 30, 2025 The Health Insurance Marketplace® Open Enrollment Period for plan year 2026 begins on November 1, 2025, and runs until January 15, 2026.
The average HealthCare.gov premium after tax credits is projected to be $50 per month for the lowest cost plan in 2026 for eligible enrollees. This represents a $13 increase from 2025.
When compared to years prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, Marketplace enrollees this year will have access to, on average, plans with lower premiums after tax credits and more plan choices overall.
Premium Affordability
Eligible HealthCare.gov enrollees continue to have robust access to low premium plans after applying advance payments of the premium tax credit.
- Similar to 2025, on average, tax credits are projected to cover 91% of the lowest cost plan premium in 2026 for eligible enrollees. This compares to 85% in the 2020 coverage year, which was the last coverage year not impacted by temporary COVID-19 pandemic policies.
- For a 50-year-old earning twice the poverty level, tax credits will cover 81% of the premium for a benchmark plan as compared to 93% in 2025.
- The average Marketplace premium after tax credits is projected to be $50 per month for the lowest cost plan in 2026 for eligible enrollees. While this represents a $13 increase from 2025, it remains $20 less expensive than the monthly premium after tax credits in 2020.
- In 2026, nearly 60% of eligible re-enrollees will have access to a plan in their chosen health plan category at or below $50 after tax credits. This compares to 83% of eligible enrollees in 2025 and 56% in 2020 with equivalent access.
Issuer Participation
For 2026 there are 183 Qualified Health Plan (QHP) issuers on HealthCare.gov. Out of the 30 states on HealthCare.gov for 2026, 19 have as many or more QHP issuers participating in 2026 than 2025.
Enrollee Options
In 2026, HealthCare.gov enrollees continue to have access to a broad range of issuers.
The average 2026 enrollee has between 6 and 7 QHP issuers available.
In 2026, 95% of enrollees have access to three or more QHP issuers, compared to 96% in 2025 and 68% in 2020.
In addition, less than 1% of 2026 enrollees have only one available QHP issuer, which is the lowest percentage in HealthCare.gov history.
Health Savings Account (HSA) Eligibility
President Trump’s Working Families Tax Cuts Legislation expanded access to HSA-eligible plans that enable contributions to a consumer’s HSA account by making all bronze and catastrophic Marketplace plans HSA-eligible plans.
In 2026, this will make HSA-eligible plans available to every consumer in every county across the states that utilize HealthCare.gov.
This expands access to HSA-eligible plans to at least 1.6 million additional HealthCare.gov consumers.
For the full official document, visit the CMS page: Plan Year 2026 Marketplace Plans and Prices Fact Sheet. No downloadable PDF was noted in the content.
Hmm. $50 dollar premiums for those ELIGIBLE. Those eligible must be extremely low income because people of mid range had told me years ago that the rates were very high, copayments high etc.