Hundreds of thousands of Pennsylvanians are waking up to a new reality as health insurance premiums for 2026 have officially skyrocketed. Following the expiration of federal enhanced tax credits, officials from Pennie, the state’s health insurance marketplace, report that monthly costs for enrollees have increased by an average of 102%.
The price hikes, which took effect January 1, 2026, have sent shockwaves through the Commonwealth, particularly hitting middle-income families and older residents who are not yet eligible for Medicare.
The financial pressure is already having an impact on enrollment. Approximately 70,000 people have already exited the marketplace, with younger, healthier individuals opting to go uninsured rather than pay the new rates. Pennie had projected that as many as 150,000 of its nearly 500,000 users might leave the exchange without the federal subsidies.
The massive jump in out-of-pocket costs is the result of a “perfect storm” of economic and legislative factors: The primary driver is the end of the Federal Enhanced Premium Tax Credits. These subsidies, originally passed in 2021, capped insurance costs at 8.5% of household income. With Congress failing to renew them, many families are seeing their monthly payments double or even triple.
Separate from the lost subsidies, the Pennsylvania Insurance Department approved an average base rate increase of 21.5% for individual plans. Insurers cited rising costs for prescription drugs, increased use of expensive outpatient services, and a “sicker” pool of enrollees as reasons for the underlying rate increases.
The burden is not being felt equally. While the state average increase is 102%, some rural areas are seeing much more dramatic shifts. In Juniata County, residents are facing average premium hikes of nearly 485%.
For a 60-year-old couple in York County earning $82,000 a year, state data shows their annual premium could jump from roughly $7,000 to over $35,000—an increase that many advocates call “unsustainable.”
