5 Million Americans Drop ACA Coverage After Enhanced Subsidies Expire, Raising Public Health Concerns
Key Insights
Approximately 5 million fewer Americans are enrolled in ACA marketplace plans in 2026 compared to the record high of 24.2 million in 2025, according to HHS data.
The enrollment decline followed Congress's failure to extend enhanced premium tax credits, causing premiums to double on average from 2025 to 2026.
Loss of coverage threatens preventive care access, chronic disease management, and infectious disease control, potentially leading to worse health outcomes nationwide.
New data released by the Department of Health and Human Services on Friday reveals that approximately 5 million fewer Americans are currently enrolled in Affordable Care Act marketplace health insurance plans compared to last year. Current enrollment stands at 19.2 million, down from a record high of 24.2 million in 2025. More than 1 million fewer people selected a plan for 2026, and an additional 4 million either disenrolled or failed to pay their premiums and subsequently dropped coverage.
The steep decline follows the expiration of enhanced premium tax credits at the end of last year, after Congress failed to extend the subsidies that had made health premiums more affordable. While the Trump administration attributes the drop to efforts to address fraud, many health policy experts point to affordability as the primary driver.
"The main takeaway is that enrollment is down 13% from last year," said Cynthia Cox, director of KFF's Program on the ACA. "While the Trump administration attributes this drop in enrollment to their attempts to address fraud, this coverage loss happened at the same time millions of people faced double or even triple digit increases in their premium payments with the expiration of enhanced tax credits."
The Affordability Crisis
Premium costs doubled on average from 2025 to 2026 after Republican lawmakers allowed the enhanced premium tax credits to expire. Democrats had shut down the government in October 2025 attempting to negotiate a three-year extension of the credits that would have kept prices low.
"When their costs went up, many of them dropped their coverage," Cox explained. She noted that while fraud is a real problem in the ACA marketplaces, as it is in all insurance markets, it likely does not account for the full drop in enrollment.
Stacey Pogue, senior research fellow at the Georgetown Center on Health Insurance Reforms, echoed this assessment. "I don't see data that point to that conclusion that a 5 million person drop can be explained by allegations of fraud," she said. "There's lots of evidence pointing to people making decisions based on what they can pay each month."
Impact on Preventive Care
Health insurance is one of the strongest predictors of whether individuals receive preventive medical care, including routine blood work, annual physical exams, vaccinations, and cancer screening. Research shows that uninsured Americans have significantly lower rates of breast, cervical, and colon cancer screening compared to those with insurance. Without coverage, conditions such as high blood pressure, elevated cholesterol, and some cancers could go undetected until they become advanced and difficult to treat.
The survival implications are stark: those diagnosed with early-stage lung cancer (search) have a five-year survival rate of 61%, while those diagnosed with advanced-stage lung cancer that has metastasized have a five-year survival of just 7%.
Chronic Disease Management at Risk
For Americans living with chronic diseases, losing insurance could be devastating. Many rely on ACA coverage to afford medications for conditions such as diabetes (search), asthma (search), depression, and autoimmune diseases. Without insurance, patients are much more likely to skip doctor appointments, ration medications, or choose not to fill prescriptions. A diabetic unable to access insulin, for instance, could suffer from diabetic ketoacidosis—a life-threatening condition that can lead to severe dehydration, coma, and death.
Infectious Disease and Systemic Strain
Insurance coverage also has profound effects on infectious disease prevention. Without coverage, Americans may delay seeking evaluation for contagious illnesses such as COVID-19, measles, or sexually transmitted diseases. Delayed diagnosis and treatment increase the opportunity for these diseases to spread in households and communities. Reduced access to vaccinations further weakens community health protections.
Hospitals and emergency departments may experience increased strain as uninsured patients seek care. Under the Emergency Medical Treatment and Labor Act, emergency departments are required to stabilize patients regardless of their ability to pay, potentially leading to rising levels of uncompensated care that get passed along throughout the healthcare system.
Market Stability Concerns
The enrollment decline also raises concerns about insurance market stability. When healthier individuals disproportionately leave markets because coverage becomes unaffordable, insurers are left covering a sicker, more expensive population. This dynamic can lead to increased premiums for those who remain enrolled.
Several insurance companies, including Cigna, have already announced they will not participate in ACA markets next year. "If there are fewer customers, then that makes the market less appealing to insurance companies," Cox noted.
Despite these pressures, Cox said she is not currently worried about a market "death spiral." "I think there are still enough people buying ACA marketplace coverage and that's going to keep these markets working," she said. "At this point, we don't see any parts of the country that are at risk of having no insurance company."
More than half of ACA enrollees live in Republican congressional districts, according to KFF. Regardless of policy changes, healthcare affordability remains a bipartisan concern with consequences that extend beyond individual families to physicians, hospitals, and communities nationwide.