Bronze health plan popularity surges in Marketplaces

What’s happening with Marketplace health plan enrollments?

Enrollment in Marketplace health plans declined in 2026¹ after four consecutive years of record-high enrollment.² This was not surprising, given the sharp increase in net premiums for 2026 due to the expiration of federal subsidy enhancements at the end of 2025.

We don’t yet have Marketplace metal-level plan selection data for the states that use HealthCare.gov, but about half of the state-run Marketplaces have shared information about the metal levels that people selected during open enrollment. In most cases, Bronze plan selections increased significantly. (There were a couple of exceptions, which we’ll discuss in a moment.)

Why might consumers be downgrading to Bronze plans?

Lower premiums

Although all Marketplace plans cover the ACA’s essential health benefits, Bronze plans have higher deductibles and out-of-pocket limits than Silver or Gold plans.³ As a result, Bronze plans have lower monthly premiums.

So when consumers were faced with average net premiums that more than doubled for 2026,⁴ it’s understandable that people may have selected a different plan with a lower premium, in an effort to keep their monthly premium costs affordable.

Access to HSA contributions

The fact that Bronze plans are newly HSA-eligible may also have been a factor in some enrollees’ decisions to downgrade to a Bronze plan. As of 2026, all Bronze (and Catastrophic) Marketplace plans are HSA-eligible, meaning that people who enroll in these plans have the option to contribute pre-tax money to a health savings account (HSA).

Learn more about health savings accounts and the tax advantages they offer.

Contributions to an HSA will reduce the ACA-specific modified adjusted gross income (MAGI) that’s used to determine Marketplace subsidy eligibility. So selecting an HSA-eligible plan and making HSA contributions is a way for people to increase their subsidy amount (due to their reduced MAGI) or potentially qualify for subsidies if the HSA contribution brings their MAGI down below 400% of the federal poverty level (FPL).

This became more important in 2026, due to the return of the “subsidy cliff.” Enrollees with household income above 400% of FPL have to pay full-price for their coverage in 2026, so opting for a Bronze plan and contributing to an HSA may have been a choice that allowed some enrollees to continue to qualify for a subsidy.

Which state-run Marketplaces have reported an increase in Bronze plan selections?

Of the state-run Marketplaces that have published 2026 enrollment metrics thus far, all but two have reported an increase in the percentage of enrollees selecting Bronze plans:

• California: Of enrollees in 2025 plans, 130,000 enrollees switched to Bronze plans for 2026. And among new enrollees, more than a third selected Bronze plans, compared with fewer than a quarter last year.⁵
• Idaho: Nearly 60% of enrollees picked Bronze plans, while enrollment in Silver and Gold plans declined compared to 2025 enrollment.⁶
• Maine: Nearly 60% of enrollees picked Bronze plans⁷ – up from 46% in 2025. (The percentage of enrollees in Bronze plans had been quite steady from 2022 through 2025.)⁸
• Maryland: The exchange reported that 5,743 people switched from 2025 Gold plans to Bronze plans for 2026.⁹
• New Jersey: Among people who actively selected a plan (not counting auto-renewals), 31% chose a Bronze plan, up from 16% the year before.¹⁰
• Pennsylvania: Bronze plan selections were 30% higher than they were the year before.¹¹
• Rhode Island: As of mid-January 2026, about 38% of new enrollees had picked a Bronze plan, up from about 15% in previous years. There was also a trend of existing enrollees switching to Bronze plans at that point.¹²
• Vermont: Almost twice as many people newly selected a Bronze plan for 2026, compared with 2025. And more than 60% of the new Bronze enrollees had previously been enrolled in Gold plans.¹³
• Virginia: Bronze plan selections increased, although not as significantly as they did in most of the other states listed above. For 2026 coverage, 42% of enrollees selected Bronze plans, up from 38% in 2025.¹⁴

Four of those nine states (California, Maryland, New Jersey, and Vermont) offer state-funded subsidies in addition to federal subsidies, in an effort to make Marketplace coverage more affordable. But despite this additional assistance, a significant number of enrollees still downgraded their coverage for 2026.

Which state-run Marketplaces reported a reduction in Bronze plan selections?

Two state-run Marketplaces have reported a decrease in Bronze plan selections for 2026. In both cases, the state had taken action to make more robust coverage more affordable for residents:

New Mexico

Very few Marketplace enrollees in New Mexico have Bronze plans. Enrollment in Bronze plans dropped slightly – from 3.4% in 2025¹⁵ to 3.1% in 2026.¹⁶

New Mexico offers additional state-funded subsidies that result in robust “Turquoise” plans being available to enrollees with household incomes up to 400% of the federal poverty level.¹⁷ These are by far the most popular plans in the New Mexico Marketplace, selected by nearly eight out of ten enrollees buying 2026 plans.¹⁶

New Mexico is also the only state that used state funding to fully backfill the reduction in federal premium subsidies for 2026.¹⁸ So while consumers in many states responded to higher net premiums (stemming from the expiration of the federal subsidy enhancements) by downgrading their coverage to a plan with a lower premium,¹⁹ there was no need for New Mexico residents to do that.

Washington

About 87,000 Washington Marketplace enrollees selected Bronze plans for 2026,²⁰ versus about 96,000 who had picked Bronze plans for 2025.²¹ (In both cases, this was roughly three out of ten enrollees, since total enrollment declined for 2026.)²⁰

But Gold plan selections increased significantly in Washington, increasing from 18% of plan selections in 2025²¹ to 53% in 2026.²⁰

This migration to Gold plans happened because Washington adopted premium alignment for 2026, requiring insurers to add a 43% load to the premiums for Silver plans. This is because most Silver plans actually have benefits that are similar to those of Platinum plans, as a result of cost-sharing reductions (CSR).²²

Because Silver plans became more expensive, premium subsidies also increased, as subsidy amounts are based on the cost of a Silver plan. These larger subsidies made Gold plans more affordable, leading to a substantial increase in Gold plan selections for 2026.²⁰

What does a shift to Bronze plans mean for consumers?

Bronze plans have average deductibles of nearly $7,500 in 2026, which is more than double the overall weighted average deductible across all Marketplace plans.³ Plan designs vary considerably, but some Bronze plans count all non-preventive care toward the deductible (and deductibles can be as high as $10,600 in 2026, depending on how the plan is designed).²³

So consumers who select Bronze plans will generally have deductibles that are quite a bit higher than the average Marketplace plan deductible. Their total out-of-pocket exposure is often as high as the allowable maximum, which is $10,600 for a single individual in 2026.²⁴ And depending on how the plan is designed, it might pay very little until the enrollee has met the deductible.

This means Bronze plan enrollees should be prepared for the possibility of having to pay several thousand dollars in out-of-pocket costs if they end up needing medical care during the year.

Unfortunately, a person who downgraded to a Bronze plan because of premium affordability might struggle to come up with the money to pay their deductible. Or they might avoid getting necessary medical care because of the cost.¹⁹