Hundreds of thousands of Massachusetts residents who get their insurance through the state’s health connector have one week to make an important decision: what plan, if any, can they afford to sign up for in 2026, without the assistance of federal subsidies.
Now that it appears Congress won’t act to extend Affordable Care Act subsidies, some Massachusetts residents may decide health coverage through the exchange is no longer affordable.
Without those subsidies, people shopping for Massachusetts Health Connector plans will see, on average, annual premiums that are $1,300 higher than this year, said Audrey Morse Gasteier the connector’s executive director.
“So, for many people, that’s just not $1,300 they have sitting around available,” said Morse Gasteier. “And so they’re having to make difficult decisions. We are seeing some people make the decision to drop coverage. We’re seeing other people make a decision to buy a lower-cost plan and other people who are still trying to make that decision as we head towards the December 23rd deadline.”
For some, the financial hit will be more severe. Individuals earning a little over $60,000 a year are just over what Morse Gasteier referred to as the “subsidy eligibility cliff.”
“They’ll go from having some help to having no help,” she said. People in that group over the age of 55 will be hit especially hard, she said, because premiums are higher for that age group, but they don’t yet qualify for Medicare.
“We’ll see increases [for that group] that in some cases can exceed 10 or $20,000 a year,” Morse Gasteier said.
People can find an estimate of how the federal changes will impact their premiums on the Massachusetts Health Connector’s website.
Massachusetts has had the highest rate of insurance coverage in the country for over a decade, she said, with over 97% of people currently insured.
“So we are worried about people who may make the decision to go without coverage,” Morse Gasteier said. “Between these changes, as well as some of the setbacks from the so-called ‘One Big Beautiful Bill Act,’ the Commonwealth has estimated that over the next several years, we could see hundreds of thousands of people who are in coverage today no longer being covered.”
The health connector reported earlier this month that some 10,000 people had already terminated their coverage for 2026, double the number of cancellations they saw at the same time last year.
Adults in Massachusetts are required to have health insurance and could face a state tax penalty if they do not.
Morse Gasteier says that, while federal subsidies are going away, the state will continue to subsidize health plans on the connector — helping to keep them affordable to many. And she’s encouraging people to sign up.
“Despite all of these headwinds from Washington, D.C. and some of the setbacks we’re facing, there does continue to be affordable health coverage that’s available to people here in Massachusetts, and we wanna make sure people have the healthcare access and the financial security that comes with being covered,” she said. “So, for anybody who was maybe putting off a decision because they were waiting to see what Congress may or may not do, don’t wait any longer.”
Open enrollment runs through, January 23, but in order to not lose coverage on January 1, people need to sign up for a plan by December 23.
