Health insurance is getting more expensive next year. How drastic will your sticker shock be? We asked the area’s leading HIV/STD clinic, Latinos Salud, to preview what’s ahead. Dr. Stephen Fallon said it will depend in large part on who’s paying your monthly premium—you, your employer, or your clinic. Read on to make sure you don’t get the healthcare gut punch!
Rising costs:
If you thought your health insurance premiums shot up in 2026, get ready for more of the same in 2027. The average health insurance premium increased by nearly 18% this year, and insurers are asking for another 14%–15% increase for 2027.
Decreasing subsidies:
An ACA subsidy is a discount, which decreases the amount of the premium patients personally owe for their monthly Affordable Care Act health insurance plan. About three-quarters of American taxpayers became eligible for “enhanced” subsidies that took effect with the “American Rescue Plan” in 2021.
For the first time, Americans with incomes over 400% of the Federal Poverty Level (about $63,000 per year for a single person) had been able to access the subsidies, which gave very generous discounts, capping the portion of the monthly bill Americans owe at no more than 8.5% of their income.
The Trump administration refused to extend those enhanced subsidies for 2026. The result was that the portion of monthly premium bills that Americans actually pay shot up by 56% this year!
For 2027, the administration is further limiting who is eligible for the ACA subsidies. Orlando Sosa, Latinos Salud’s Evaluation and Wellness Operations Manager, noted that under the Trump administration’s “One Big Beautiful Bill,” “Someone may be legally present while waiting for permanent residency or asylum, and may also have employment authorization and pay taxes in each paycheck, but that does not necessarily make the person eligible for the subsidy.”
Be sure to check your eligibility during Open Enrollment that begins November 1 st . If you’re a patient at Latinos Salud, they handle eligibility confirmation for you.
No worries if you don’t get your health insurance through the ACA Marketplace?
According to the Kaiser Family Foundation, about one in 10 people who had ACA insurance in 2025 had to drop coverage due to the higher costs that hit in 2026.
When people drop out of the health insurance market, the cost of healthcare gets spread among fewer people. That’s why even people with employer-sponsored plans, which are outside of the ACA, also saw their premiums bump up in 2026 by about 8%.
For 2027, Health Affairs Forefront estimates that 1.5 million more current ACA health insurance policyholders will lose their premium subsidies, which raises costs for employer-sponsored plans even further.
When free health insurance isn’t free:
Some clinics or hospitals offer patients premium assistance, covering the remaining monthly health insurance premium after the eligible patient’s ACA subsidies are subtracted.
But we were shocked to learn that many patients at certain area clinics are getting hit with a huge tax bill at the end of the year.
Some clinics may forget to check with their patients for any changes in income. Could it be that some others are encouraging their patients to understate their income, so that the clinic only has to pay artificially lowered premiums?
Latinos Salud protects their patients against the tax risk, by checking at each follow-up appointment to see if a patient’s income status has changed. Since eligibility is based on household income, if a patient gets married, and their spouse has high income, the patient’s subsidies may decrease—or disappear altogether. A big promotion or second job may also bump you out of the current subsidy level.
In most cases, Latinos Salud simply continues to pay their patient’s health insurance premium, even though the net cost is higher. “Better to cover the premium increase for a person in need than have them suffer a hit with a tax bill,” Fallon said.
If all of this sounds overwhelming:
Latinos Salud’s counselors and navigators are here for you. Whether you qualify for their premium assistance or not, they welcome everyone.
Best of all, Latinos Salud doesn’t charge co-pays or lab fees, so you’re already coming out ahead when you get your PrEP or HIV care at Latinos Salud. Now that’s a good surprise!
