Why individual and family coverage is so unsettled this year

Congress let the enhanced premium tax credits expire at the end of 2025. That loss is a reason 2027 prices are higher in both Oregon and Washington. Healthier people have already left, which raises the average cost of the people who stay.

Oregon approved an average 21.6% increase for the individual market. A 40-year-old in Portland is looking at about $599 to $734 a month before any tax credit, depending on the silver plan. Washington approved a 22.2% average increase for Exchange plans. Those are averages. A household’s bill still depends on age, county, plan, and income.

Washington’s Exchange covered nearly 250,000 people in 2026, 13% fewer than the year before, the largest drop since 2012. The expired credits had been worth about $1,330 a year on average. Oregon’s individual market shrank from about 161,000 people in 2025 to about 140,000 in 2026.

Providence Health Plan will not sell individual and family plans in 2027. Policies end December 31, 2026. PacificSource is leaving Oregon’s individual market too. People on either carrier need a new plan for January, even if the doctor relationship stays the same.

In Washington, twelve insurers were approved to sell Exchange plans for 2027. Fourteen had offered plans for 2026. Providence Health Plan, with 254 enrollees, is the carrier that is not returning.

Oregon’s remaining individual carriers are BridgeSpan, Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon, Moda, and Kaiser Permanente. Kaiser is in a limited set of counties. Moda will not sell in Crook, Deschutes, Klamath, Lake, Marion, Polk, Umatilla, or Union counties. Two carriers are available statewide, seven counties have four choices, 23 have three, and six have two.

Starting November 1, 2026, Oregon residents enroll in 2027 coverage on Explore Health, the state’s own marketplace. Washington stays on Washington Healthplanfinder, November 1 through January 15.

Oregon will match some people whose carrier left with a plan from another company, so a gap is less likely if they do nothing. A matched plan can use a different network and a different drug list. Shopping is still the way to see whether your doctors and prescriptions moved with you. Enroll by December 15, 2026 in Oregon, or December 31, 2026 in Washington, for a January 1 start.

Oregon pointed to higher medical costs, tariff pressure on drugs and equipment, and carriers leaving. The state put an extra $15 million into the Oregon Reinsurance Program to offset higher-than-usual claims. That kept the increase from going higher. It did not stop it.

Hospitals and drug makers are charging more, people are using more higher-cost care, and the people who kept coverage after the credits expired are sicker on average. Cascade Care Savings, Washington’s own premium help, softened some of this in 2026. It does not restore the federal credit that went away.