Maryland’s insurance regulators approved an average 14.6% increase in 2027 individual health insurance premiums for the state’s Affordable Care Act marketplace, a decision covering about 274,000 people. The Maryland Insurance Administration finalized the rate on September 25, 2026, after reviewing separate filings from each insurer selling on the individual market. Small businesses buying coverage through Maryland’s small-group market received their own, lower average increase in the same announcement.
What a 14.6% premium approval doesn’t include: the rate covers marketplace premiums only, not the separate Medicare costs an older Maryland household manages, a gap The Medicare Cost & Coverage Protection Kit’s Maryland cost-help pack addresses. Open Maryland’s Medicare cost-help pack →
Maryland’s 14.6% Approval
The Maryland Insurance Administration approved an average 14.6% increase in 2027 individual-market health insurance premiums, according to the agency’s own announcement, dated September 25, 2026. The approval applies to plans sold on Maryland’s ACA marketplace, and it landed below what insurers had originally filed for, after the state’s actuaries reviewed each insurer’s projected claims costs, a reduction Maryland Matters also reported the same day. The 14.6% figure is a statewide average across every individual-market insurer, so any single plan’s actual increase can land above or below that number depending on the insurer, the metal tier and the specific plan design a household chooses.
The 274,000 Marylanders in the Individual Market
About 274,000 Marylanders buy coverage through the individual market the new rate affects, according to the Maryland Insurance Administration. That population includes people who buy ACA marketplace plans directly, as well as those who purchase individual coverage off the exchange, since Maryland’s approved rate applies to the entire individual market regardless of where a plan is purchased. It is a larger group than the roughly 199,000 Marylanders covered by the state’s small-group market, though both groups saw a new average rate finalized in the same September 25 announcement from the Maryland Insurance Administration, Maryland’s state agency that licenses and regulates every insurer selling coverage in the state.
Small Businesses Face a Separate 10.2% Increase
In the same announcement, Maryland’s insurance regulators approved a separate average 10.2% increase for the state’s small-group market, covering employers with 50 or fewer full-time workers and roughly 199,000 enrollees, down from an average 13.1% insurers had requested for that market. Small-group and individual-market premiums are reviewed and approved separately in Maryland, each against its own claims data, even though both figures were announced together on September 25.
What Maryland’s Insurance Commissioner Is Telling Residents
Maryland Insurance Commissioner Marie Grant said residents “are encouraged to carefully review their renewal notices and compare available plans,” according to the same announcement. That guidance points toward Maryland’s open enrollment period, when marketplace shoppers can switch plans or insurers if a competitor’s 2027 pricing looks better than the plan currently held. Marylanders who buy coverage through Maryland Health Connection, the state’s own ACA exchange, will be able to compare 2027 plan pricing across insurers once the new rates post ahead of open enrollment, rather than simply watching the increase apply automatically to a current plan.
How Maryland’s Rate Review Works
Insurers selling individual and small-group plans in Maryland file their proposed rates with the Maryland Insurance Administration months before a plan year begins, submitting projected medical costs, prescription drug spending and administrative expenses to support the numbers they want to charge. Actuaries at the agency then compare those projections against each insurer’s actual claims experience from prior years, checking whether the assumptions behind a requested increase hold up. That review is what allowed Maryland’s regulators to approve 14.6% for the individual market while approving a different, lower 10.2% figure for the small-group market in the very same announcement, since each market’s claims data told a different story.
How a Rate Review Turns a Request Into an Approved Number
Maryland’s insurance regulators, like their counterparts in other states, examine each insurer’s claims data, projected medical trend and administrative costs before signing off on a final premium number, and the agency can order a lower rate than an insurer originally files. That review process is why Maryland’s approved 14.6% increase reflects the state’s own actuarial judgment rather than simply accepting the figure insurers originally proposed on their initial rate filing. The same review produced the smaller 10.2% figure for the small-group market, evidence that Maryland’s regulators evaluated the two markets on separate data rather than applying one blanket adjustment.
Maryland’s Own State-Based Marketplace
Maryland runs its own ACA exchange rather than relying on the federal HealthCare.gov platform that many other states use, which is part of why the Maryland Insurance Administration reviews and approves rates on its own timeline each year. That state-based structure gives Maryland’s insurance regulators direct authority over what insurers can charge before a plan year begins, the same authority behind this month’s 14.6% and 10.2% approvals. It also means Maryland’s rate decisions do not wait on any federal marketplace calendar, so the state can finalize and publish its numbers, as it did on September 25, well ahead of the November open enrollment window most ACA marketplaces share.
Maryland’s Rate Review Doesn’t Reach Medicare Costs
The Maryland Insurance Administration’s review covers individual and small-group marketplace plans, a process separate from the annual reviews that shape Medicare Part B premiums, drug-plan costs and the appeals process for a denied prior authorization. A household that shops the ACA marketplace one year and moves onto Medicare the next faces an entirely different set of forms and deadlines.
The Medicare Cost & Coverage Protection Kit includes a Maryland cost-help pack alongside a medication and cost tracker built for that transition.
Compare Maryland’s Medicare cost-help pack against the marketplace notice in The Medicare Cost & Coverage Protection Kit.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. The numbers above come from the state source linked throughout.
