Health insurers across the United States are requesting premium hikes of up to 30% for 2027, according to filings submitted to state regulators in recent weeks, as soaring medical service costs and the expiration of pandemic-era federal subsidies force consumers and small businesses to prepare for sharply higher insurance bills.
The requests vary widely by state and insurer. In Maine, insurers filed proposed rate increases reaching as high as 32%, while thirteen health insurers in Washington state requested an average rate increase of 22.4% for the individual market. Connecticut insurers, including ConnectiCare Benefits and Anthem, filed for average increases of 22.7% and 17.4%, respectively, according to InsuranceNewsNet reporting from June 11, 2026.
The primary driver behind these requests is the surge in underlying medical costs. Commercial health plans are facing the steepest single-year cost increase in 17 years, with the group market trend projected to reach 9% in 2027, according to PwC’s annual medical cost trend report published June 11. The second major factor is the expiration of enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that were in place from 2021 to 2025. Those credits expanded marketplace affordability and drove enrollment to record highs, but their expiration at the end of 2025 caused premium payments to surge, particularly for enrollees earning above 400% of the federal poverty level.
The impact on enrollment has already been severe. This year, sign-ups during open enrollment fell by 1.2 million, a 5% drop from the prior year—the largest decline in any year since the marketplaces opened in 2014, according to analysis by the Commonwealth Fund cited in InsuranceNewsNet. Several state-based marketplaces released early data indicating that plan cancellations rose sharply between January and March 2026, up 24% over the same period last year. Many Americans dropped down a coverage tier, resulting in fewer benefits and causing the average marketplace annual deductible to increase by $1,000 in 2026, to nearly $3,800.
Analysts project that 2026 marketplace enrollment will decline 17 percent to 26 percent from the previous year, dropping by around 5 million people. Coverage losses are expected to increase further in 2027 as additional federal cuts to subsidies and new enrollment barriers take effect, according to InsuranceNewsNet’s reporting on the filings.
State regulators are pushing back on the rate hike proposals. Connecticut Attorney General William Tong stated that the double-digit demands are “unaffordable, excessive, and unacceptable” and pledged rigorous scrutiny of the applications. “Year after year, insurers pad these rates with fuzzy math, double-counted costs and unsupported assumptions,” Tong said. He also argued that insurers “remain utterly unwilling and unable to use their leverage to negotiate with healthcare providers and drive down these runaway healthcare costs.” The Connecticut Insurance Department is required by state law to determine whether the requested rates are “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory.”
During recent earnings calls, health insurance executives have signaled that elevated medical cost trends are prompting companies to prioritize profit margin recovery and benefit cuts when drafting their 2027 plan structures. Humana CEO Jim Rechtin explained the logic during his company’s earnings call: “You still have to come back and say, ‘OK, but what are the changes that you have to make to benefits in order to get to your target margin, so in order to get to a sustainable, durable, attractive long-term margin that gives us an appropriate return on capital?’ That’s the logic you’re going through each and every year.”
Sources
- InsuranceNewsNet — Core reporting on 2027 rate hike requests across multiple states, drivers of increases, and enrollment impact from Commonwealth Fund analysis
- PwC — 2027 medical cost trend projection of 9% for commercial group market
- Becker’s Payer Issues — Confirmation of PwC’s 17-year-high cost increase finding
- Washington Office of the Insurance Commissioner — Confirmation of Washington state’s 22.4% average rate request from thirteen health insurers
