Audrey Horn and her husband are retired and rely on a Medica bronze plan they buy through the Affordable Care Act. Horn says that plan now costs more every month than their mortgage payment, after climbing from $1,700 a month in 2024 to $2,700 a month in 2027.
“In 2024, it was $1,700 for a Medica bronze plan, and in 2027 it's $2,700 a month. It went up $1,000 in four years,” Horn said, according to WOWT. The station reports the couple's costs have risen since enhanced ACA subsidies expired last December. Horn and her husband have relied on the ACA and qualified for subsidies since 2019, according to 3 News Now, which previously reported their bronze plan premium before subsidies rose from about $1,700 to $2,400 — an increase the station calculated at 40%.
Subsidy Expiration Squeezes Nebraska Enrollees
The federal premium subsidy enhancements expired at the end of 2025, and that expiration did result in significant increases in the after-subsidy premiums that many Nebraska Marketplace enrollees now pay, per healthinsurance.org. Before that, the picture looked very different: 87% of Nebraska Marketplace enrollees saved money on their 2026 premium payments, with average savings of $674 a month, the same source notes. Nebraska's 2027 open enrollment period runs from November 1 through January 15, with plans selected by December 15 taking effect January 1, and five insurers — all of which also sold coverage in 2026 — are offering Marketplace plans for 2027.
Enrollment numbers reflect the strain. A total of 128,492 people signed up for Nebraska ACA Marketplace plans during the 2026 open enrollment period, a decline from the record high the year before, healthinsurance.org reports. Nationally, KFF found that ACA Marketplace plan selections fell by 1.2 million during the 2026 Open Enrollment Period compared with 2025, and by February 2026 effectuated enrollment nationwide was down 12%, or 2.6 million people, to 19.2 million.
Premium Hikes Land Across the Map
Nebraska insurers have proposed a weighted average 13.3% increase in 2027 individual-market premiums before subsidies, according to healthinsurance.org. That tracks with national trends: KFF's analysis of 276 insurers with public filings found a median proposed premium increase of 15% for 2027, which it called the second consecutive year of double-digit hikes, with insurers citing higher health-service costs, general inflation, labor shortages, and the expiring enhanced tax credits. The Washington Post, looking at 37 states and Washington, D.C. where 2027 rates had been finalized, found a typical rise of about 16%, with insurers in every state seeking higher premiums and most increases falling between 10% and 20%.
Other households are feeling similar jumps. An Omaha resident identified only as John told KETV his Medica ACA plan would cost $1,500 a month in 2026, up from $1,000 the year before. In Flagstaff, Arizona, a woman told the Washington Post her family of four would pay more than $2,500 a month, while an Oklahoma City couple said their plan was set to roughly double, to about $1,400 a month. Gladys Harrison, owner of Big Mama's Kitchen and Catering in Omaha, previously told WOWT her premium rose by more than $100 a month once tax credits lapsed.
Congress Weighs Next Move
Congresswoman-elect Denise Powell, a Nebraska Democrat, was at the U.S. Capitol for new-member orientation this week, a process WOWT reported would last 10 days. “One of the first things I'm hoping we can accomplish in Congress is reversing these Medicaid cuts, reversing the cuts to the ACA subsidies,” Powell said. House Democrats plan early votes to restore the enhanced subsidies and boost Medicaid once Congress is sworn in on January 3, according to the Associated Press, as cited by the same WOWT report. Some Republicans, however, argue the chamber should focus on lowering costs for the broader population rather than just those who rely on the ACA and Medicaid, the report notes.
For now, Horn is researching 2027 health plans while she waits to see whether the newly elected officials will bring change for her family. She said people should have access to food and health care, and that public money should fund those needs. Meanwhile, Families USA has pointed to just how unusual this stretch has been: marketplace rates grew by an average of only 3.9% a year between 2019 and 2025, a period of relative stability now giving way to back-to-back double-digit increases.
