PRICE TO PAY

Trump’s Plan Is Pushing Health Insurers to Hike Premiums

Some are already telling regulators the increases will be bigger than they would have been without the president’s actions.

Some health insurers say President Trump’s tariffs are driving them to raise premiums they will charge to individual and small group plans next year. Independent Health Benefits Corporation has informed New York regulators that it plans to increase 2026 premiums for its individual market enrollees by 38.4 percent, with 3 percent of that directly attributed to projected cost increases for drugs and imported drugs resulting from tariffs, a spokesperson told Axios. UnitedHealthcare of Oregon said nearly 3 percent of its planned 19.8 percent increase for small group enrollees stems from tariff uncertainty. Trump has signaled that sector-specific tariffs on pharmaceuticals are expected “very soon,” fueling uncertainty as Congress weighs cutting Medicaid and ending enhanced subsidies under the Affordable Care Act. Insurers “don’t have any historical precedent or data to project what this is going to mean for their business and health costs,” Matt McGough, policy analyst for health policy non-profit KFF, told Axios. “There are sort of a perfect storm of factors that are driving prices up,” said Sabrina Corlette, a research professor at Georgetown’s Center on Health Insurance Reforms.