If you employ people in Central Oregon, the 2027 numbers are already public, and they say something you would not expect.
Oregon's insurance regulator did not trim what carriers asked for on the individual side. It raised it. All four individual carriers filed requests, and the division rejected all four filings as too low to meet Oregon's rate standards, then approved rates higher than the carriers themselves had asked for. The approved individual average landed at 21.6%. Small group, reviewed by the same division in the same cycle, came in at 15.5%, with three carriers cut and none raised.
Most states will not publish approved 2027 rates until October. Oregon is done, because state law requires a formal proceeding with a signed final order for every carrier, and those orders were signed on August 17, 2026. That gives you real numbers while everyone else is still reading requests.
The regulator raised the individual rates. It cut small group.
Carriers asked for an average of 17.5% on the individual side. The approved number is 21.6%, because the division found the filings too low.
Rate review usually runs one direction. Carriers file what they want. The regulator pushes back, and the approved number lands at or below the request. That is what happened in Oregon's small group market. Carriers filed for an average of 17%, and the division approved 15.5%.
The individual market went the other way, and the orders say why. For each of the four carriers, the division found the filed rates do not meet all applicable legal requirements of the Insurance Code and are therefore not approved. Rates modified higher would meet them.
Oregon law requires rates to be actuarially sound. It also requires them to be not excessive, not inadequate, and not unfairly discriminatory. The finding here was inadequacy. The carriers had not asked for enough to cover what the division expects the market to cost.
Oregon 2027 individual market: what each carrier asked for and what was approved. Full names are BridgeSpan Health Company, Kaiser Foundation Health Plan of the Northwest, Moda Health Plan and Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon.
| Carrier | Asked for | Approved | Change |
|---|---|---|---|
| BridgeSpan | 11.7% | 19.3% | raised 7.6 pts |
| Kaiser NW | 12.2% | 15.8% | raised 3.6 pts |
| Moda | 25% | 27% | raised 2.0 pts |
| Regence | 12.2% | 20.3% | raised 8.1 pts |
| Average | 17.5% | 21.6% | raised 4.1 pts |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Two of the six thinnest counties are Bend's and Prineville's
Six Oregon counties have only two individual carriers for 2027. Deschutes and Crook are two of them.
Providence Health Plan and PacificSource both leave Oregon's individual market at the end of 2026, and neither filed individual rates for 2027. That leaves four carriers in the individual market: BridgeSpan, Kaiser, Moda and Regence. Three of them sell statewide. Kaiser sells in part of the state, which is why the county you live in decides how many choices you actually get.
The state publishes a county-by-county table of who sells where. Six counties come out of it with two carriers, and Central Oregon holds two of those six.
Oregon counties with only two individual carriers for 2027
| County | Notable towns |
|---|---|
| Crook | Prineville |
| Deschutes | Bend, Redmond, Sisters |
| Klamath | Klamath Falls |
| Lake | Lakeview |
| Umatilla | Pendleton, Hermiston |
| Union | La Grande |
Scroll the table sideways to see every column.
Deschutes County priced five individual carriers for 2026. It has two for 2027. If you live in Bend or Redmond and buy your own coverage, roughly half the market you shopped last year is not selling to you this year.
We have written separately about how Bend and Deschutes County price differently from the rest of the state, and about the rating area line that runs near Redmond. Both of those quirks still apply. They are just applying to a much shorter list of carriers now.
What this means if you employ people in Central Oregon
Your employees shopping on their own face a thinner market. Your group options did not thin the same way.
Maybe you have been treating individual coverage as the fallback for your team. Look at what that fallback now is in Deschutes or Crook County. Two carriers. A 21.6% approved average increase. And for many households, a smaller federal subsidy than they had two years ago, because the enhanced premium tax credits expired.
Small group is not in that position. Six carriers filed small group rates for 2027, the approved average is 15.5%, and the division reduced three of those six rather than raising any of them.
- There are more small group carriers than individual carriers. Six filed small group rates for 2027. The individual market has four, and only three of those sell statewide.
- The approved small group increase is about six points lower than the individual increase, 15.5% against 21.6%.
- Group coverage does not depend on a rating area. The Crook and Deschutes county line changes individual pricing materially. Group rating works differently, which matters when your crew lives on both sides of it.
- Employer contributions are not subject to the subsidy cliff. An employee whose household lands just over the income threshold gets no premium tax credit at all. Your contribution helps them regardless of income.
The honest limits of what we just told you
Averages are not your renewal, and group coverage is not automatically the cheaper answer.
A 21.6% statewide average is a market-level number. It is not a quote, and it is not what any particular household will see. Your actual renewal depends on your carrier, your plan, your county and your ages. The same is true of the 15.5% small group figure.
Group coverage is also not free, and it is not right for every employer. It carries participation requirements, a contribution commitment, and administrative work that individual coverage does not. For a very small team with mostly subsidy-eligible employees, individual coverage can still be the better answer even in a two-carrier county. We would rather tell you that than put you in a group plan you did not need.
- Short-term plans are not the bridge here. Oregon caps short-term medical at three months including any renewal, and the same insurer cannot re-issue you within 60 days. It is a gap filler in Oregon and nothing more.
- Oregon runs its own marketplace. Individual enrollment moves to the state's own site rather than HealthCare.gov, so the process your employees followed in past years has changed.
- Check OHP Bridge before you assume. Oregon adults between 138% and 200% of the federal poverty level may qualify for coverage at no monthly cost to the member, and the state decides eligibility, not us. If that turns out to be an employee's situation, it is usually better than anything either of us could put them in.