ACA Open Enrollment Starts Today on HealthCare.gov: Benchmark Premiums Up 13 Percent for 2027, and Dec. 15 Is the Deadline for Jan. 1 Coverage

Open enrollment for 2027 Affordable Care Act coverage opens Sunday, November 1, and runs through January 15, 2027, according to KFF's preview of the enrollment period, read this cycle; shoppers who sign up by December 15 get coverage that starts January 1, under the federal schedule the preview summarizes. Texas has no state exchange of its own — Texans shop on HealthCare.gov, the federal marketplace.

The prices are the story. Benchmark silver premiums are rising an average of 13 percent for 2027 — 11 percent in HealthCare.gov states and 16 percent in state-based marketplaces — the second straight double-digit increase after a 26 percent rise from 2025 to 2026, a cumulative 42 percent over two years, KFF's analysis found. The enhanced premium tax credits that held down what shoppers actually paid expired on December 31, 2025, and people earning above 400 percent of the federal poverty level no longer qualify for credits at all.

Enrollment is already sliding, the preview shows: 2026 plan selections fell by 1.2 million, effectuated enrollment dropped 12 percent — 2.6 million people — to 19.2 million by February 2026, and the individual market shrank 18 percent by June 2026, from 25.2 million to 20.5 million. The Congressional Budget Office projects marketplace enrollment of 13.1 million in 2027, down from the 22.4 million peak in 2025. The carrier map is churning too: as of October 29, 11 insurers had announced exits against 7 entries, and Cigna is leaving the individual market in all 11 of its states, KFF reported. For San Antonio shoppers, the practical file is short: the window is open now, the Dec. 15 date decides whether coverage starts with the new year, and the sticker prices this year are not the subsidized prices of the last four.