Kate Bivona, a 37-year-old musician and teacher in Tempe, Arizona, was shocked when she saw the new 2026 premiums for the health insurance plan that she and her husband used in 2025.
Last year, the couple was paying $118 per month for the silver-tier plan on the Healthcare Marketplace, the federal site where individuals without access to insurance through work can enroll in a plan. Now, that cost would be more than $400, an amount their roughly $50,000 combined annual income couldn’t absorb.
