Oregon’s insurance regulator locked in a 21.6 percent average rate increase for its individual health insurance market on August 18. Delaware’s regulator followed on September 4, approving a 17.2 percent increase for its largest marketplace insurer. Both numbers are final decisions, not the opening asks insurance companies filed months ago. If you buy your own coverage in either state, these are two of the only places in the country where the 2027 price is actually locked in rather than still sitting on a regulator’s desk.
Oregon’s Individual Market Lands At 21.6 Percent
The Oregon Division of Financial Regulation announced on August 18 that it had finalized 2027 rates for insurers selling individual health plans in the state, setting the average increase at 21.6 percent. That is higher than the smaller bump regulators had flagged back in June. DFR said updated claims data, continued enrollment losses in the individual market, and financial losses insurers reported in recent months pushed the final number up, compounded by the loss of enhanced federal Affordable Care Act subsidies, rising medical costs, and tariff pressure on medical equipment and prescription drugs.
Oregon’s small-group market, which covers workers at many small businesses, fared better in the same order. Insurers there had asked for an average 17 percent increase, and DFR’s final decision cut that to 15.5 percent, with some individual insurers’ requests trimmed by as much as 8 percent.
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What 21.6 Percent Costs An Oregon Household, Carrier By Carrier
A statewide average hides what each company actually charges, so DFR’s final order also publishes carrier-level numbers using a standard benchmark: a silver plan for a 40-year-old buying coverage in the Portland area. Moda Health Plan’s final increase came in highest of the four remaining individual-market carriers, at 27 percent, pushing that benchmark premium to $706 a month. Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon rose 20.3 percent to $708, and BridgeSpan Health Company rose 19.3 percent to $734. Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest had the smallest final increase, 15.8 percent, landing at $599 a month for the same benchmark plan.
Those final numbers moved in both directions from what insurers first asked. Moda’s original request was 25 percent; DFR’s actuaries actually raised it to 27 percent after reviewing updated claims data, while Regence’s 12.2 percent request became 20.3 percent and BridgeSpan’s 11.7 percent request became 19.3 percent. Only Kaiser’s final rate tracked close to its original ask. The pattern DFR described publicly, heavier-than-expected claims and a shrinking pool of individual-market customers, shows up differently at each company depending on who its Oregon customers are.
Delaware’s Highmark Rate Comes In Below Its Original Ask
Delaware’s insurance department announced its own final 2027 marketplace rates on September 4. Highmark Blue Cross Blue Shield of Delaware, the state’s dominant marketplace insurer, had requested a 20.2 percent average increase; regulators approved 17.2 percent instead, a three-point cut from what the company originally filed. The state’s other ACA marketplace insurer, AmeriHealth Caritas, saw its requested increase adjusted down to a final average of 13.94 percent after what the state described as actuarial discussion between the company and the department; its nine 2027 plans are marketed as not requiring referrals to see a specialist.
Insurance Commissioner Trinidad Navarro said the department’s review “worked to limit increases wherever actuarially possible, while ensuring carriers have sufficient funds to pay the high health care costs of our state.” Delaware’s own announcement, like Oregon’s, points to forces playing out nationwide: this year’s federal budget law and the scheduled expiration of the enhanced Affordable Care Act premium tax credits that have held marketplace premiums down since 2021. Those credits lapse for 2027 unless Congress acts, and both states cite that expiration as a direct driver of what carriers filed.
Highmark will offer 16 comprehensive marketplace plans plus one catastrophic plan for 2027, some bundled with HSA-eligible options and connected vision and adult dental coverage. Open enrollment for 2027 Delaware marketplace coverage begins November 1, so the approved rate, not the number Highmark first filed, is what will show up when Delaware shoppers start comparing plans this fall.
Oregon’s Reinsurance Program And Six Counties Down To Two Insurers
Oregon’s final order also leaned on the state’s reinsurance program, which reimburses insurers for a share of their highest-cost claims so those costs don’t flow straight into everyone’s premium. DFR budgeted an additional $15 million for the program for 2027 on top of existing funding, and the agency said the program’s cushioning effect lowered individual-market rates by an average of 10.7 percent compared with what they would have been without it.
The state’s county-by-county rate and coverage breakdown also confirms which insurers are staying and which are leaving. Providence and PacificSource are exiting Oregon’s individual market for 2027, leaving Kaiser Permanente, Moda Health, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, and BridgeSpan as the remaining carriers. DFR’s own release says two of those four now sell statewide, seven counties will have four insurers to choose from, and 23 counties keep three. Six counties are down to just two options apiece: Crook, Deschutes, Klamath, Lake, Umatilla, and Union, all in central and eastern Oregon, according to the state’s coverage table.
Why “Approved” Is Different From “Requested” For Your Wallet
Most of the 2027 rate numbers making headlines right now, in dozens of other states, are still requests insurers filed with regulators, not decisions. A requested increase can move by several points once a state’s insurance department finishes its review, the way Delaware trimmed Highmark’s ask by three points and Oregon cut small-group requests from 17 to 15.5 percent. Oregon and Delaware are simply further along in that review than most of the country, which is why 21.6 percent and 17.2 percent are the actual figures that will land on 2027 bills rather than a starting point for negotiation.
If you shop for coverage on Oregon’s or Delaware’s ACA marketplace, budget around the finalized numbers each state’s regulator published this year, not the earlier requested figures that circulated over the summer. Every other state’s requested rate remains subject to that same kind of adjustment, up or down, before open enrollment begins.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by a human editor. Figures are linked to their primary sources; where a claim could not be verified from the public record, we say so.
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