Enrollment is open for Affordable Care Act coverage. What do New Mexicans need to know?

It’s time to pick a plan: New Mexicans can now enroll in 2027 health insurance coverage through BeWell, the state health insurance exchange established by the federal Affordable Care Act.

“Basically, if you're not eligible for coverage through your job, through your partner or from Medicaid [or] Medicare, now is the time to get coverage for 2027,” said Clint Reecer, BeWell’s director of marketing.

Open enrollment started Sunday and ends Jan. 15.

This year’s open enrollment period comes amid a series of financial pressures for individual customers and state coffers alike. New Mexico Superintendent of Insurance Alice Kane in September approved an average rate increase of 24.4% for 2027 individual insurance plans sold on and off BeWell, meaning many consumers will see higher monthly premiums next year.

Meanwhile, the state Legislature has stepped in to subsidize coverage for middle income households that used to qualify for expanded federal subsidies, after Congress allowed the federal program to expire in 2025. New Mexico is projected to spend $188 million on those subsidies in 2026, according to a Legislative Finance Committee evaluation published in August.

But BeWell’s enrollment process and financial assistance haven’t changed, Reecer said. Even the marketplace’s carriers — Blue Cross Blue Shield of New Mexico, Presbyterian Health Plan, Molina Healthcare and United Healthcare for medical coverage — will remain the same between 2026 and 2027.

“It really is kind of business as usual on this side of things,” Reecer said.

Higher costs to consumers

More than 84,000 New Mexicans — a new record — sought health coverage through BeWell during open enrollment in late 2025 and early 2026.

That’s no small feat. New Mexico was the only state in the nation to see an increase in Affordable Care Act marketplace coverage during that open enrollment period, according to an analysis from the health research and policy organization KFF. About 40% of current BeWell customers pay $0 in monthly premiums, after state and federal subsidies.

House Speaker Javier Martínez, an Albuquerque Democrat, attributed the growth in enrollment to recent state investments in the Health Care Affordability Fund, the main tool New Mexico uses to subsidize premium costs for customers who purchase individual coverage through BeWell.

“It is that fund that helped shore up [President Donald] Trump's chaotic and cruel healthcare cuts since last year, so that no New Mexican on the Obamacare exchange saw an increase the way others saw an increase across the country,” he said in an interview.

But that’s not to say New Mexico residents who get their health insurance through the exchange have been spared higher prices. Individual plan premiums increased by an average of nearly 36% between 2025 and 2026, and this year’s average rate increase outpaces the nationwide median.

Monthly premiums for 2027 range from about $400 to more than $2,000 depending on age, location, tobacco use and plan type, data from the Office of the Superintendent of Insurance shows.

Higher costs to New Mexico

As New Mexico residents prepare to bear rising health insurance costs, the state can expect to do the same.

Congress in 2025 did not renew federal subsidies — officially known as Enhanced Premium Tax Credits — for marketplace enrollees making more than 400% of the federal poverty level, the equivalent to about $64,000 for an individual or $132,000 for a family of four.

New Mexico uses money from the state Health Care Affordability Fund to effectively replace those subsidies. In 2025, the state set aside almost $40 million on top of recurring Health Care Affordability Fund spending to backfill the expiring tax credits. As a result, total annual state spending on marketplace coverage increased by more than 600% between 2025 and 2026, according to an August Legislative Finance Committee report.

That spending sets New Mexico apart, Reecer said.

“Our financial assistance packages are the best in the country, hands down,” he said. “We've really taken it seriously that people need help to stay covered and made those funds available.”

Still, lawmakers have called for cost-containment measures, even though the Health Care Affordability Fund’s outlook has improved. An August analysis found the fund could be insolvent by fiscal year 2028, absent changes to program costs or eligibility. More recent estimates, however, project the fund will have a surplus of $177 million by fiscal year 2028 rather than a $30 million deficit, as a result of rising insurance premiums and legislation authorizing increased distributions to the fund.

The state Health Care Authority has requested nearly $317 million in base spending on the fund for fiscal year 2028, according to an agency budget presentation in October. The agency has also proposed discontinuing subsidies for people who make more than 600% of the federal poverty level — equivalent to $95,000 for an individual or nearly $200,000 for a family of four — to stay within budgetary boundaries.

There is a possibility Congress could reverse course and reinstate the Enhanced Premium Tax Credits or undo cuts to Medicaid included in the 2025 federal reconciliation bill. New Mexico U.S. Reps. Gabe Vasquez and Teresa Leger Fernández have co-sponsored the Protecting Health Care and Lowering Costs Act, which would accomplish both of those tasks.

“It would eliminate these new work requirements and reporting requirements, and it would permanently extend the Affordable Care Act Enhanced Premium Tax Credits and help more families access this affordable coverage. This is a long-term solution that we need,” Vasquez said in an interview.

So far, the bill hasn’t made any progress since it was first introduced in August 2025, but that could change if Democrats gain ground in Congress in Tuesday’s midterm elections.

“There's a lot of other issues in our healthcare systems that need to be fixed,” Vasquez said. “But in these next two years under this administration, the only way that we're going to fix this is by reversing these these drastic cuts.”

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