As of the first week of January, nearly 22.8M Americans have signed up for Affordable Care Act (ACA) plans for 2026, roughly 1M less than the same period last year, amid rising plan premiums following the expiry of COVID-era ACA tax credits.
According to a national snapshot released by the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS), about 22.8 million consumers have signed up for ACA plans, also known as Obamacare, as of Jan. 3, since the open enrollment period started on Nov. 1, 2025.
More than 2.8M, or roughly 12%, of total signups were new to the ACA exchanges, and the rest already had 2025 coverage and chose exchanges to select a new plan or were automatically added for 2026 coverage.
Last year, CMS’s national snapshot indicated that about 23.6M Americans had selected health insurance through Obamacare exchanges for the 2025 plan year as of Jan. 4. When the OEP for HealthCare.gov exchanges lapsed on Jan. 15, the coverage had expanded to roughly 24.2M.
The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office had previously projected a 2.2M decline in Obamacare enrollees this year after the Trump administration moved to end the enhanced premium tax credits granted in 2021 for those who buy insurance through the ACA exchanges.
With the U.S. Congress unable to find an alternative to expiring tax credits since then, more than 22M Americans buying health insurance through ACA exchanges faced an 114% rise in their monthly health premiums from Jan. 1, according to healthcare policy research organization KFF.