11 states bankroll their own ACA subsidies as premiums spike 58%

At least 11 states are funding their own premium help for people who buy health coverage on the Affordable Care Act marketplace, money enrollees should see when they sign up this open enrollment season. California, Colorado, Connecticut, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Mexico, New Jersey, Rhode Island, Vermont, Virginia and Washington state are all in.

Most are keeping programs they stood up for 2026, but Rhode Island and Virginia are debuting theirs for 2027, and California expanded who qualifies. The money stacks on top of any federal premium tax credits consumers still get — those weren't the ones that lapsed.

The backdrop is ugly. Enhanced federal subsidies that had been in place since 2021 died at the end of 2025 after Democrats fought to renew them through a government shutdown that ran more than a month, and the Republican-led Congress declined. Average Obamacare premiums then jumped 58%, landing at $178 a month for 2026 versus $113 the year before, according to KFF. Enrollment slid to 19.2 million by February 2026, a 13% drop from 22.1 million a year earlier, per federal figures published in June. A later KFF analysis suggests it has kept falling.

Some states are digging deeper. California raised funding for the Covered California State Subsidy Program by $110 million, bringing it to $300 million in 2027, and lifted the income cap to 200% of the federal poverty level — $31,920 for an individual or $66,000 for a family of four — from 165%. Covered California says 200,000 more people now qualify. Massachusetts bumped its investment to $620 million, up from $600 million, the biggest state commitment in the country. Washington state's help is smaller: up to $35 a month for enrollees at or below 200% of the poverty line and up to $20 for those between 201% and 250%.

New Mexico stands alone as the only state fully replacing the enhanced federal subsidies for 2027, extending a policy already in place for 2026. It was also the lone state to grow enrollment, up 14% between 2025 and 2026, KFF found. Colorado Gov. Jared Polis framed the spending bluntly in September: “Where Congress has failed, Colorado is stepping up.”

The strategy appears to blunt the bleeding, according to KFF senior researcher Justin Lo. “We saw that states in 2026 that did offer assistance had smaller declines in enrollment,” he said. But healthinsurance.org analyst Louise Norris warned the money isn't guaranteed to keep flowing: “Whether states will be able to continue to provide funding for these programs really depends on these states' budgets.” All 11 run their own state-based marketplaces rather than HealthCare.gov, and experts note they skew Democratic.