A few minutes ago I posted a press release from Pennie (Pennsylvania's state-based ACA exchange). The release mostly focuses on the upcoming final Open Enrollment Period deadline for February coverage in the Keystone State (January 31st), but it also includes a couple of depressing (if completely predictable) stats at the end:
Costs have risen by 102% for Pennie enrollees in 2026 due to the expiration of the enhanced premium tax credits. Congress has not extended these critical savings. To date, over 70,000 Pennsylvanians have dropped coverage as a result of the higher prices – nearly 1,000 a day for most of Open Enrollment. More information can be found at pennie.com/affordability.
I did indeed visit that link, where I found the following additional details (the data provided is as of January 20th...unfortunately they don't actually list the total 2026 plan selections anywhere for some reason):
A Officials urge all Pennsylvanians without health coverage to visit pennie.com to get protected during the Open Enrollment Period.
PENNSYLVANIA – January 22, 2026 – Time is running out to enroll in health coverage through Pennie for 2026. The Open Enrollment Period will close on January 31st, marking the final opportunity for Pennsylvanians to sign up for health insurance for the year ahead. Due to federal changes causing higher health plan costs, Pennie extended the Open Enrollment deadline to January 31st ensuring Pennsylvanians have additional time to review their options and secure coverage.
Pennie, the Commonwealth’s official health insurance marketplace, is currently open at pennie.com and offers high-quality coverage options for individuals and families who do not have access to other health insurance. If you or someone you know does not currently have health coverage, this is the final time to act and visit pennie.com to explore your options to get enrolled.
Last night, the 2026 ACA Open Enrollment Period (OEP) concluded across most states, including New Mexico (there are 10 other states with later deadlines).
BeWell NM, New Mexico's ACA exchange, is among the only ACA exchanges with ongoing daily enrollment data reports, last updated early this morning. Here's how they wrapped things up compared to the 2025 OEP (barring any clerical corrections in this year's data):
Overall enrollment in the Land of Enchantment is up a whopping 17%!
The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that 22.8 million consumers have signed up for 2026 individual market health insurance coverage through the Marketplaces since the start of the 2026 Marketplace Open Enrollment Period (OEP) on November 1, 2025. This includes 15.6 million Marketplace plan selections in the 30 states using the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2026 plan year and 7.2 million plan selections in the 20 states and the District of Columbia with state-based Exchanges (SBEs) that are using their own eligibility and enrollment platforms.
Total nationwide plan selections include 2.8 million consumers who are new to the Marketplaces for 2026, and 20.0 million consumers who had active 2025 coverage and selected a plan for 2026 coverage or were automatically re-enrolled.
In other words, new enrollments are up 27% while active renewals are down about 10%; they pretty much cancel each other out compared to the same point last year.
The Maine Department of Health and Human Services (DHHS) Office of the Health Insurance Marketplace (OHIM) will release biweekly updates on plan selections through CoverME.gov, Maine’s Health Insurance Marketplace.
Plan selections provide a snapshot of activity by new and returning consumers who have selected a plan for 2026. “Plan selections” become “enrollments” once consumers have paid their first monthly premium to begin coverage. These numbers are subject to change as consumers may modify or cancel plans after their initial selection.
The deadline to select a plan for coverage beginning January 1, 2026 is December 15, 2025. Consumers who select a plan between December 16, 2025 and January 15, 2026 will have coverage beginning February 1, 2026.
As I've noted before: While I include the passive/auto-renewal number for completeness sake, that number won't really be relevant until after the deadline for January 1st coverage passes (which isn't until New Year's Eve in California).
More important for the moment is the total number of active enrollments, which includes both new enrollees as well as current enrollees who log into their account and actively select a plan for 2026.
In California, those come to 617,316 combined.
As of the same point last year (actually 1 day more; the data from last year is as of 12/28), Covered CA was reporting:
