{"id":104682,"date":"2026-01-19T14:28:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:28:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/104682\/"},"modified":"2026-01-19T14:28:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-19T14:28:08","slug":"fewer-new-yorkers-sign-up-for-private-aca-health-insurance-as-costs-rise","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/104682\/","title":{"rendered":"Fewer New Yorkers sign up for private ACA health insurance as costs rise"},"content":{"rendered":"

Fewer New Yorkers are enrolling in private health plans through the state\u2019s Affordable Care Act marketplace so far this year as insurance premiums go up, early state data<\/a> shows.<\/p>\n

As of early January, 206,427 New Yorkers had signed up for private insurance through the marketplace, a 3% decrease compared with enrollment figures released around the same time last year.<\/p>\n

Those figures are similar<\/a> to other state and federal data on ACA enrollment from early January, according to the health policy nonprofit KFF.<\/p>\n

But that doesn\u2019t mean health coverage in New York is dropping overall \u2014 at least not<\/a> yet<\/a>. Enrollment has increased this year in New York\u2019s Essential Plan, a publicly funded insurance option for lower-income New Yorkers that offers free or very cheap coverage. As of early January, enrollment in the Essential Plan was up 6% compared with last year, state data shows.<\/p>\n

Danielle DeSouza, a spokesperson for the state Department of Health, said enrollment in health coverage through the marketplace was \u201ctrending significantly lower\u201d before Dec. 15, which was the deadline to sign up for coverage that would start promptly on Jan. 1. At that point, \u201cadditional late sign-ups narrowed the gap,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

New Yorkers still have until the end of the month to sign up<\/a> for 2026 plans.<\/p>\n

DeSouza said a \u201ckey concern\u201d for state health officials now is that those with high insurance costs might still drop their plans once the time comes to pay their first premium bills.<\/p>\n

Rebecca Boyden, a Queens-based competitive figure skating coach, said this month that she had signed up for health coverage through the marketplace so she wouldn\u2019t miss the deadline, but is still deciding whether to keep it.<\/p>\n

Prior to this year, she said, the most she ever paid in insurance premiums on the marketplace was around $350 per month. Now, she said, she is signed up for a Bronze-level plan that costs $686 per month.<\/p>\n

The 55-year-old said she\u2019s trying to figure out what she can do without in order to afford insurance.<\/p>\n

Boyden said she\u2019s also asking herself, \u201c\u200aHow much can I stomach not having health insurance at all?\u201d<\/p>\n

Enhanced federal insurance subsidies that help lower the cost of coverage expired at the end of 2025, despite congressional Democrats\u2019 attempts<\/a> to reach a deal that would extend them. The expiration of those enhanced subsidies both slashed eligibility for financial assistance and reduced the amount of assistance some people will receive.<\/p>\n

DeSouza said New Yorkers\u2019 premiums have spiked about 40% this year. State officials estimated last year that the 140,000 or so New Yorkers who benefited from the federal insurance subsidies would pay an average of $114 more per month for coverage this year, or nearly $1,400 for the year.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Fewer New Yorkers are enrolling in private health plans through the state\u2019s Affordable Care Act marketplace so far…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":104683,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[39],"tags":[9,24,63,134,136,135],"class_list":{"0":"post-104682","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-staten-island","8":"tag-new-york","9":"tag-new-york-city","10":"tag-nyc","11":"tag-staten-island","12":"tag-staten-island-headlines","13":"tag-staten-island-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104682","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=104682"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/104682\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/104683"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=104682"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=104682"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ny\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=104682"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}