ICYMI: Senator Murray Responds to 22.2% Rate Increase for Washington’s 2027 Exchange Health Insurance Market
***PHOTOS AND B-ROLL HERE***
Washington, D.C. — Today, U.S. Senator Patty Murray (D-WA), a senior member and former Chair of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee, held a roundtable discussion in Seattle with patients, small business owners, and health care providers to discuss how Republicans’ sabotage of the Affordable Care Act (ACA) marketplace have sent premiums skyrocketing and have created a health care crisis for families, businesses, and communities as open enrollment season has begun. Senator Murray highlighted how Republicans’ nearly $1 trillion cut to Medicaid is costing millions their health care, forcing hospital layoffs, and worse.
Window shopping for families who shop for health care on the Washington Health Benefit Exchange has already begun and open enrollment will begin on November 1, 2026.
Joining Senator Murray at the roundtable were: Patty Kuderer, Washington State Insurance Commissioner; Dr. Matt Logalbo, MD; Alicia Anderson Pieri, a small business owner from Seattle who has seen premium costs skyrocket for her employees; and Jon Kiehnau, Co-Owner of Don & Joe’s Meats, Pike Place Market.
“Republican policies are driving health care costs higher and higher every year, from expiring tax credits to Medicaid cuts, drug tariffs, and more. Families need to know when they see their premium go up, when they see their Medicaid ripped away, when their local hospital closes or cuts services—it’s not because our government can’t afford to help families with health care. It is because those are choices that Republicans made,” said Senator Murray. “Republicans are ready to spend trillions on Trump’s wars. And they moved heaven and earth to give billionaires a giant tax cut last year. But when it came to helping working families by extending the health care tax credits—Republicans literally shut down the government to avoid working with Democrats. But Democrats won’t let Republicans ignore the damage they caused. We want to restore the health care tax credits, reverse the Medicaid cuts, and undo all the damage we can right now. And long term, I believe we need to go bolder and chart a path to universal health care coverage.”
Last year, Republicans passed the single largest cut to health care in our country’s history, and they blocked every Democratic effort to extend the ACA tax credits—causing massive premium hikes for families in Washington state and rising uncompensated care for hospitals and clinics. And in September, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner of Washington State announced that a 22.2% average rate increase was approved for insurance providers who will sell individual health plans on the Washington Health Benefit Exchange in 2027. Hospitals and clinics in Washington state are facing a $160 million loss in funding, a 5.6% spike in uncompensated care, and are expected to lose between $31 billion and $51 billion over the next decade due to Republicans’ health care cuts. So far 37 hospitals, clinics, and nursing homes in Washington state are at-risk, have announced cuts to services, are closing, or have closed.
“Today, many people are feeling the sticker shock of rising premiums,” said Insurance Commissioner Patty Kuderer. “The individual market has always been the most vulnerable, but actions by the other Washington have inflicted unnecessary harm and are part of what’s driving up these costs.”
“Our patients are worried about losing access to the insurance they rely on for essential health care and life-saving medications,” says Matthew Logalbo, MD, Medical Director at Seattle Roots Community Health. “We provide care regardless of ability to pay, but when our patients lose coverage, it hurts their ability to access necessary care beyond our walls, and our ability to fund the services they count on within.”
In August, a new report was released detailing how the One Big Beautiful Bill Act (OBBBA)—which cut over $1 trillion from health care to fund tax breaks for millionaires and billionaires—has caused 50,545 Washingtonians to lose their Medicaid, CHIP, or ACA coverage they relied on to receive health care. Republicans also refused to extend the ACA enhanced premium tax credits, which caused premiums to double for 226,813 people across Washington state and which the Washington State Insurance Commissioner cites as a primary reason driving the rate increase for 2027. For 2026, rates for plans on the Washington Health Benefit Exchange increased by 21%, which had direct impacts on families. This year, a family of four in Washington state who makes $130,000 a year saw their average annual premium rise by $12,392—costing them a total of $23,442.
ABOUT GOP REFUSAL TO EXTEND ACA TAX CREDITS:
Senator Murray forced the issue of the ACA tax credits at every opportunity before Republicans ultimately refused to take any action, speaking out nonstop about the urgent need to save health care and calling on Republicans to come to the negotiating table to work out a bipartisan deal to extend the ACA tax credits. She took to the Senate floor in November 2025 with her Democratic colleagues to call for a clean one-year extension of the ACA tax credits, and held numerous virtual press conferences with Washingtonians, as well as residents of neighboring states Idaho and Montana, about the exploding health care premiums that Americans would see due to the expiration of the tax credits. As the top Democrat on the Senate Appropriations Committee, Senator Murray led legislation supported by the Democratic caucus that would have addressed the health care crisis during the government shutdown last fall. Senator Murray has also cosponsored multiple pieces of legislation over the past year—the Health Care Affordability Act and the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act—that would make the ACA tax credits permanent.
As then-chair of the Senate Health Committee, Senator Murray played a critical role in passing the ACA enhanced premium tax credits into law in the American Rescue Plan Act in 2021 and extending them in the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.
ABOUT TRUMP’S MEDICAID CUTS:
Nationwide, the Republican health care cuts represent a more than $400 billion hit to America’s hospitals—with one estimate finding that over 170 rural hospitals will likely be forced to close or scale back their services, which will force more Americans to travel further for maternity care and emergency room visits, and face longer wait times. Washington state is one of the states most at-risk, with 22 hospitals at-risk of closing or reducing services. An estimated 477,000 health workers will lose their jobs as a result of the Republican cuts to Medicaid. Senator Murray has consistently advocated for rural health care access across the state, hosting numerous events to emphasize the importance of investment into rural communities.
Hospitals in Washington state could lose at least $662 million in Medicaid revenue every year under OBBBA—forcing hospitals to lay off staff, cut services, or close their doors entirely. Overall, Washington state is expected to lose between $31 billion and $51 billion in federal Medicaid dollars over the next decade. In 2024, Washington had an uninsured rate of 4.8 percent—the lowest in the country—but the Republican bill is expected to balloon that number into the double digits.
In Washington state, nearly 2 million people—roughly 1 in 5—are enrolled in Apple Health, the state’s Medicaid program.
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