{"id":477290,"date":"2026-02-19T06:12:11","date_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:12:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477290\/"},"modified":"2026-02-19T06:12:11","modified_gmt":"2026-02-19T06:12:11","slug":"affordable-care-act-open-enrollment-decreases-nearly-22-in-north-carolina","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/477290\/","title":{"rendered":"Affordable Care Act open enrollment decreases nearly 22% in North Carolina"},"content":{"rendered":"

(WLOS) \u2014 Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in North Carolina decreased by nearly 22% in 2026, new data shows.<\/p>\n

According to the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, the state had 975,110<\/a> open enrollment participants in 2025. In 2026, that number had decreased nearly 22%, with open enrollment totaling 761,457<\/a>. The decrease of 213,653 North Carolinians enrolled in the ACA follows a rise in premiums ranging from 16.88% to 36.4% for 2026 marketplace plans.<\/p>\n

In a news release from October 2025<\/a>, Insurance Commissioner Mike Causey announced his approval of insurance rates for the 2026 ACA.<\/p>\n

“Increased costs in healthcare, as well as the expiration of federal subsidies, result in premiums going up for many on the individual market. It’s more important than ever to begin researching your health insurance options early,” Causey said in the release.<\/p>\n

NC RESIDENTS FACE STEEP HEALTH INSURANCE HIKES DURING OPEN ENROLLMENT<\/a><\/p>\n

Roughly 900,000 North Carolinians were expected to shop for 2026 coverage through HealthCare.gov before the deadline of Jan. 15, 2026. <\/p>\n

As previously reported<\/a>, independent insurance agent Doug Lack said that increases were already being felt in November 2025. Lack told News 13 that he was seeing silver-level plans, which are the most common in North Carolina, jump by $100 a month for some clients.<\/p>\n

Lack previously said that silver plans are seeing the most changes because they are the “enhanced” options that relied most on federal subsidy dollars, and as funding phases out, consumers are having to pay more of the true cost of coverage.<\/p>\n

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For more coverage information, visit here<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"(WLOS) \u2014 Enrollment in the Affordable Care Act (ACA) in North Carolina decreased by nearly 22% in 2026,…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":477291,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[59],"tags":[97,252,253],"class_list":["post-477290","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-health-care","tag-health","tag-health-care","tag-healthcare"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477290","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=477290"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/477290\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/477291"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=477290"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=477290"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=477290"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}