Policy
ACA open enrollment opens with benchmark premiums up 13% for 2027
Marketplace shoppers face a second straight year of double-digit premium increases, and a higher cap on what they can be asked to pay for care.
Daily edition
Sunday, November 1, 2026
Everything The Care Ledger published that day: 1 story, the news in brief and the figures.
In brief
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01
Baystate completes its takeover of Mercy Medical Center in Springfield, Mass.
Baystate Health closed the $300 million deal with Trinity Health Of New England on Sunday, and the hospital is now Baystate Mercy Hospital. Baystate says patients' insurance coverage does not change; it also owns a health plan, Health New England, with about 160,000 members.
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02
USA Health and UnitedHealthcare extend talks to Nov. 30 in Mobile, Ala.
UnitedHealthcare commercial and Medicare Advantage members stay in network at University Hospital and Children's & Women's Hospital through Nov. 30. Without a deal, care there may be billed as out of network starting Dec. 1; the system's Providence Hospital has been out of network since Nov. 15, 2025.
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03
Former patient sues Sen. Roger Marshall's old practice over interest on a medical bill
A class action filed Oct. 29 in Barton County District Court in Kansas alleges that Heartland Regional OBGYN added 18% annual interest to a $3,596 bill for a 2009 delivery, above the 15% cap in Kansas law. Marshall declined to comment to the Kansas Reflector.
The figures
13%
average rise in benchmark silver premiums for 2027, after a 26% rise for 2026
ACA open enrollment opens with benchmark premiums up 13% for 2027
$704a month
national average benchmark premium for a 40-year-old in 2027, up from $625
ACA open enrollment opens with benchmark premiums up 13% for 2027
$12,000
the most a marketplace plan can make one person pay for covered in-network care in 2027
ACA open enrollment opens with benchmark premiums up 13% for 2027
13.1million
projected marketplace enrollment in 2027, down from 22.4 million in 2025
ACA open enrollment opens with benchmark premiums up 13% for 2027