Marketplace 2026 Open Enrollment Period Report: National Snapshot

Marketplace 2026 Open Enrollment Period Report: National Snapshot

The Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS) reports that nearly 950,000 consumers who do not currently have health care coverage through plans in the individual market Marketplace have signed up for coverage in 2026, since the start of the Marketplace Open Enrollment Period (OEP) on November 1, 2025. Existing consumers are also returning to the Marketplace to actively renew their coverage, and anyone who does not actively renew will be automatically re-enrolled for 2026. Over 4.8 million existing consumers have already returned to the Marketplace to select a plan for 2026.

Definitions and details on the data in this report are included in the glossary. 

Glossary

HealthCare.gov: The 30 states that use the HealthCare.gov platform for the 2026 coverage year, including the Federally-facilitated Exchanges and State-based Exchanges that use the federal platform (HealthCare.gov). The 30 states for 2026 include: Alabama, Alaska, Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Hawaii, Indiana, Iowa, Kansas, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, New Hampshire, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Texas, Utah, West Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming.

State-based Exchanges (SBEs): The Exchanges in the 20 states and the District of Columbia that operate their own eligibility and enrollment platforms. The 21 SBEs for 2026 include: California, Colorado, Connecticut, the District of Columbia, Georgia, Idaho, Illinois, Kentucky, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Nevada, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington. Generally, the data metric definitions provided here are applicable to the SBE metrics, with some exceptions. Please contact the SBEs for additional information on their metrics. 

Cumulative Plan Selections: The cumulative metric represents the total number of people who have submitted an application and selected a plan, net of any cancellations from a consumer or cancellations from an insurer that have occurred from November 1, 2025, through the end of the reporting period. To have their coverage effectuated, consumers generally need to pay their first month’s health plan premium, if applicable. This release does not report the number of effectuated enrollments.

New Consumers (HealthCare.gov): Consumers are considered new if they did not have 2025 Marketplace coverage through the federal platform through December 31, 2025, and made a 2026 plan selection through the federal platform.

New Consumers (SBEs): Consumers are considered new if they did not have 2025 Marketplace coverage in the SBE that uses its own platform where they made a 2026 plan selection through the SBE.

Returning Consumers (HealthCare.gov): Consumers are considered returning if they have 2025 Marketplace coverage through the federal platform through December 31, 2025, and either actively select the same plan or a new plan for 2026. The returning consumers count does not currently include consumers who have been automatically re-enrolled in their current plan for 2026 coverage.

Returning Consumers (SBEs): Consumers are considered returning if they have 2025 Marketplace coverage through December 31, 2025, in the same SBE where they actively select the same plan or a new plan for 2026. The returning consumers count does not currently include consumers who have been automatically re-enrolled in their 2025 plan or an alternate suggested plan for 2026 coverage. SBEs have reported the following data on plan selections for auto re-enrolled consumers.

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