Millions of Americans are walking away from Obamacare

A new KFF analysis published this month found that individual health insurance enrollment plummeted 18% between June 2025 and June 2026. More than 4.6 million people left the market.Democrats have rushed to blame Republicans, particularly for allowing the enhanced COVID-era Obamacare subsidies to expire.But those subsidies merely concealed the underlying problem — that Obamacare has made health insurance so expensive that millions of Americans cannot afford it without substantial government assistance. Across all Obamacare marketplace plans, the average monthly premium paid by enrollees after subsidies jumped 58% this year, from $113 to $178. Average deductibles climbed 37%, to $3,786.Those increases didn’t come out of nowhere. Insurers raised underlying Obamacare premiums by a median of 20% for 2026 — the steepest increase in years.Obamacare’s regulations are a major reason why. The law requires insurers to cover ten “essential” benefits, whether customers want them or not. It also restricts how much insurers can vary premiums based on age and prohibits charging people more because of their health status.These mandates make coverage more expensive for many consumers, particularly younger and healthier Americans who might prefer less comprehensive, lower-cost policies.And what do they get for their money? Often, insurance with thousands of dollars in deductibles and limited networks of doctors and hospitals.Worse, Democratic policymakers have worked to eliminate some of the affordable alternatives.Consider short-term health insurance. Originally designed to fill temporary gaps in coverage, these policies aren’t subject to Obamacare’s costly benefit mandates and pricing restrictions.According to a Manhattan Institute study by Chris Pope, some short-term plans offer comparable or better financial protection than Obamacare coverage at substantially lower premiums, often with broader provider networks. They may not be suitable for everyone — particularly those with chronic health problems. But that hardly makes them the “junk insurance” Democrats have repeatedly called them.President Donald Trump expanded access to these policies during his first term. Former President Joe Biden reversed that expansion. Several states have banned short-term plans outright, including California.The rationale is revealing. In a 2019 statement, five senior congressional Democrats warned that expanding short-term plans would draw healthier Americans out of the Obamacare insurance pool, driving up premiums for those who remained.In other words, Democrats would rather restrict Americans’ insurance choices than allow consumers to leave a market their regulations have made prohibitively expensive.The expiration of enhanced subsidies contributed to this year’s enrollment decline. But it also exposed how dependent Obamacare has become on taxpayer assistance to make its coverage affordable.OBAMACARE PREMIUMS SET FOR ANOTHER DOUBLE-DIGIT INCREASE IN 2027Democrats created the regulations that drive up premiums, subsidized the resulting costs instead of fixing them, and fought to keep cheaper alternatives out of reach.If they want more Americans to have health insurance, the answer isn’t another round of subsidies. It’s dismantling the regulations that have made coverage unaffordable in the first place.Sally C. Pipes is President, CEO, and Thomas W. Smith Fellow in Health Care Policy at the Pacific Research Institute. Her latest book is The World’s Medicine Chest: How America Achieved Pharmaceutical Supremacy — and How to Keep It (Encounter 2025). Follow her on X @sallypipes.