Under the Affordable Care Act, consumers can buy private health insurance with standardized benefits through government-administered health insurance exchanges, commonly called marketplaces.
The interactive dashboard below displays plan selections and premiums in Arkansas by county and statewide as of the end of the annual open enrollment period for the years 2020 through 2026. Available measures include total number of consumers, average monthly premium, average premium after application of financial assistance through advanced premium tax credits (APTCs), the percentage of consumers receiving APTCs, and the percentage of consumers receiving cost-sharing reductions, which is additional financial assistance available to lower-income consumers when they seek services. Some key takeaways include:
- The overall number of Arkansas consumers who made marketplace plan selections decreased from 166,639 in 2025 to 160,307 in 2026.
- The statewide average premium rose from $591 in 2025 to $839 in 2026.
- The statewide average premium, after premium tax credits, rose from $124 in 2025 to $162 in 2026.
- There was a shift in Arkansans’ selection of plans under the metal-tier system used to categorize marketplace plans:
- The share of Arkansas marketplace consumers selecting gold plans increased from 4.7% in 2025 to 31.5% in 2026.
- The share of Arkansas marketplace consumers selecting silver plans decreased from 69.2% in 2025 to 34.6% in 2026.
- The share of Arkansas marketplace consumers selecting bronze plans increased from 26.1% in 2025 to 32.5% in 2026.
- The share of Arkansas marketplace consumers receiving an advanced premium tax credit fell modestly from 92% in 2025 to 86.9% in 2026.
- The share of Arkansas marketplace consumers selecting silver plans with cost-sharing reductions fell from 61.8% in 2025 to 31.8% in 2026.
Abbreviations
- APTC: Advanced premium tax credit, a federal subsidy that lowers the monthly premium paid by eligible consumers. The size of the APTC is reduced as a consumer’s income increases, up to a household income of 400% of the federal poverty level, or about $62,000 in 2026. Consumers with income above 400% of the federal poverty level do not receive an APTC.
- CSRs: Cost-sharing reductions. Consumers who meet certain income requirements are eligible to enroll in silver plans with reduced cost-sharing expenses (e.g., deductibles, copays, coinsurance). The extent of the reductions varies depending on household income. CSRs do not directly reduce monthly premiums.
Measures
- Average Premium: The average pre-subsidy per-person monthly premium among all consumers with a marketplace plan selection.
- Average Premium After APTC: The average per-person monthly premium, after application of the advanced premium tax credit, among all consumers with a marketplace plan selection.
- % Receiving APTC: The percentage of consumers with a marketplace plan selection who received an advanced premium tax credit.
- % Receiving CSRs: The percentage of consumers with a marketplace plan selection who selected a plan with cost-sharing reductions.
- Total Consumers: The total count of consumers with a marketplace plan selection.
Notes
- Data displayed are as of the end of the selected plan year’s open enrollment period (e.g., data for 2026 are as of January 15, 2026, the last date of that year’s open enrollment period).
- Members of Arkansas’s Medicaid expansion program, ARHOME, are excluded from these data.
- Small numbers (i.e., numbers under 11, or percentages that could be used to calculate numbers under 11) are suppressed in the source data, so some counties do not have data for certain measures in certain years. Suppression of small numbers also prohibits displaying enrollment levels for some metal tiers; when this occurs, the suppressed tiers are aggregated.
- Percentage labels in the metal tier display may not add up to 100% because of rounding.