The Alabama Department of Insurance approved all four carriers’ 2027 rate changes for ACA individual plans on October 2, 2026, effective January 1. Two things stand out before any of the numbers. None of them is leaving, which is better news than several states got. And the largest carrier in the state blames something other than medical costs. That tells you more about where this market is heading than the percentage does.
What each Alabama carrier had approved for 2027
Four carriers had 2027 rate changes approved, all four are staying, and the range runs 11.4% to 33.8%.
Taken from the Alabama Department of Insurance’s final 2027 rate order of October 2, 2026, which lists every approved plan and its rate change by carrier.
What this list is, precisely, because the scope matters. These are the carriers whose 2027 rate changes for ACA-compliant individual plans were approved by the Alabama Department of Insurance. That is not the same thing as every company selling individual health coverage here. Short-term, fixed-benefit and minimum-essential-coverage products do not file rates this way, so they will never appear on a list like this. Neither would a carrier that filed no change. We place several of those non-ACA products ourselves, so a page that claimed to cover the whole individual market would be contradicted by our own plan pages. If price is pushing you outside ACA coverage, read the tradeoffs on our short-term and private plans page first, because those are not ACA-compliant comprehensive coverage.
These are approved 2027 rates, not requests. Alabama signed its final 2027 order on October 2, 2026, and the rates take effect January 1. Every carrier came in below what it originally asked for: Oscar requested 35.1% and was approved at 33.8%, UnitedHealthcare 27.6% to 27.5%, Blue Cross 20.1% to 19.9%, and Celtic 11.6% to 11.4%. The reductions are small, which is normal, and the direction is the point: a filed number is an opening position and the approved number is the one you pay against.
Same story, other states. Arizona is harder: a wider spread and a carrier leaving the individual market outright. Texas filed the mildest increases of the three, with nearly every enrollee receiving financial help.
Every 2027 Alabama individual-market approved rate, highest to lowest
| Carrier | Approved change |
|---|---|
| Oscar Insurance Company | 33.8% |
| UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company | 27.5% |
| Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama | 19.9% |
| Celtic Insurance Company, which sells as Ambetter | 11.4% |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Approved, not requested. The Alabama Department of Insurance approved the 2027 rates on October 2, 2026, effective January 1, 2027. All four carriers that sold for 2026 are back for 2027, so no Alabama household is forced to change carrier by an exit. Every carrier came in BELOW its original request. Source: ALDOI, "Final ACA Rate Changes for Alabama Policies in the Individual Market".
- Why Oscar's figure is the largest, and why that is less alarming than it looks. 2027 is Oscar's first Alabama rate change. It entered the state for 2026 and had no prior rate to adjust, so its number is not comparable to a carrier that has been repricing here for years.
- We are not publishing a statewide average, on purpose. Alabama has not published one, and any average we produced without member counts would be arithmetic dressed up as a fact. What is honest is the range: 11.4 to 33.8% .
The honest number is the range: 11.4% to 33.8%, not an average. All four carriers are staying; none is entering or exiting. Highlighted: Oscar is flagged because 2027 is its first Alabama repricing, so its 33.8% is not comparable to carriers that have been adjusting rates here for years.
The reason behind the increase is not what you would guess
Alabama's largest carrier names a shrinking, sicker enrollment pool ahead of medical costs. That is the whole story of this filing season.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Alabama holds roughly half the individual market here, and in its own filing it describes what happened to that market. It grew from about 195,000 people in 2021 to more than 475,000 in 2025, then fell below 360,000 during 2026, and the company expects further decline through 2027.
That matters to you for one practical reason. When the driver is the composition of the pool rather than one carrier’s costs, shopping between carriers still helps you, but nobody in the market is immune. It is a reason to compare rather than a reason to despair.
The approved percentage is not your percentage
Most Alabama enrollees get a credit, and the credit chases the benchmark upward.
Your credit is pegged to a benchmark plan, the second-cheapest silver plan available to you, re-set annually. Because all four had increases approved, the benchmark moves up too, and the credit moves with it. That is why a 20% increase and a 34% increase can land much closer together on your actual bill than they look on paper. More on how ACA Marketplace plans and subsidies work.
The exception is income above 400% of the federal poverty level, where no credit applies and the increase arrives whole. That line depends on household size. The full arithmetic is in how your income estimate affects your subsidy rather than repeated here.
What is specific to shopping in Alabama
One carrier dominates and holds the largest rural network, which makes the network question different here than in a crowded market.
That cuts both ways. Price-first shopping is riskier here than it looks, because the cheapest plan on the list is the most likely to drop the provider you need. But it also means a newer carrier is worth a real look rather than a reflex dismissal, because a second viable network in a rural county is genuinely new.
What to do before open enrollment
Alabama-specific, and the hospital question comes before the premium question.
One calendar note. Open enrollment opens November 1. December 15 is the cutoff for coverage starting January 1 and January 15, 2027 closes enrollment. Those dates were unsettled for months after a June 2026 court ruling vacated the shortened-window rule, and CMS has since confirmed January 15. our Alabama page carries the rest.
- Name your hospital first. Outside the Alabama metros the plans that include your local hospital can be few, and that decides the answer before price does.
- Give the newer carriers a real look. Four carriers stayed and none left, so you have a genuine choice, which is not true in every state this year.
- Do not read Oscar's 33.8% as the worst deal. It is that carrier's first Alabama repricing, not a signal about its plans.
- Rerun your credit against the new benchmark before judging any of these numbers.