West Kentucky Allied Services Paducah office on July 9.
PADUCAH — Affordable Care Act marketplace rates are set to rise again in 2027, according to public filings, and West Kentucky Allied Services said that it could be catastrophic for those affected.
The ACA marketplace is a public platform for buying private insurance plans and applying for premium tax credits and Medicaid.
The rate increases can be found in 77 publicly released ACA rate filings submitted to state regulators on June 30. The rates reveal a median 14% rate hike across the country and double-digit rate increases for two policies in Kentucky.
“For our low-income clients, we’re already seeing that a good number of them find prices are so out of reach that they are having to make a decision between paying rent or utilities or having health care coverage, and sad to say, a good number are deciding not to have health care coverage,” Uppinder Mehan, CEO of West Kentucky Allied Services, said.
Mehan said that the ACA marketplace was supposed to be the more affordable alternative to other private plans, but has become just as expensive. He explained that this has put many in Kentucky in a bind, especially those who do not qualify for Medicaid.
“I think the main driver is that the kind of support states like Kentucky have enjoyed in the past few years, that is, support from the federal government for Medicaid, has simply vanished,” Mehan said. “The decision was made by the current administration to no longer fund states in their Medicaid costs, and so now states like Kentucky have to come up with the resources to pay for the coverage for its citizens, or look to save money wherever they can, and unfortunately, what that often ends up meaning is that people end up losing coverage.”
“Those of us who are in the middle are beginning to feel the squeeze more and more. A greater portion of folks’ budgets are going towards health care than ever before, and they’re finding it a challenge to find suitable coverage,” Uppinder Mehan, CEO of West Kentucky Allied Services, said.
ACA rates also increased in 2025 by a median of 20% across publicly available data. 2026’s change is lower, but according to the Kaiser Family Foundation, it is the second-highest rate change since 2018 and shows some premiums on the marketplaces have jumped by more than a third in two years.
“As more people become aware, they’re beginning to actually contact their representatives, which is probably the best thing you can do is let people in our state government know that there are concerns that you have about this,” Mehan said. “There are a number of committee hearings that are still going on, and my hope is that we can find a better solution.”
While not every provider’s proposed rate is publicly available at this time, Mehan said that almost every provider is scheduled to raise their prices by 8% to 14%. The two Kentucky rate increases included in the 77 available on June 30 have Anthem Health Plans of Kentucky increasing by a proposed 16.9% and WellCare Health Plans of Kentucky increasing by 20.7%.
“A greater portion of folks’ budgets is going towards health care than ever before, and they’re finding it a challenge to find suitable coverage,” Mehan said.
