States extend ACA deadlines as enrollment lags

Modern Healthcare – Tuesday, January 13, 2026
By Nona Tepper

Health insurance exchange users in a handful of states will have a little more time to choose plans this open enrollment period.

The state-based Affordable Care Act of 2010 marketplaces in Connecticut, Illinois and Pennsylvania have extended their deadlines so far. The final day to sign up remains Jan. 15 in the vast majority of states. A few state exchanges were already scheduled to remain open until later in the month, while enrollments closed on Your Health Idaho Dec. 15.

On Monday, the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services reported the enrollments were off pace from a year ago, although sign-ups were higher across the state-run exchanges. Premiums ballooned this year, largely due to the expiration of the enhanced subsidies in place since 2021.

Connecticut’s Access Health CT, Get Covered Illinois and Pennsylvania’s Pennie shifted their deadlines from Jan. 15 to Jan. 31.

“From everyone’s perspective, it was better to have a one-time extended open enrollment to try to give people more time to make decisions than to essentially have people dropping coverage because they ran out of time,” Pennie Executive Director Devon Trolley said. Insurers supported the extension, she said.

Open enrollment continues until Jan. 23 on the Massachusetts Health Connector; until Jan. 30 on Virginia’s Insurance Marketplace; and until Jan. 31 on Covered California, Access Health CT, Get Covered Illinois, New Jersey’s GetCoveredNJ, New York State of Health, Pennie, Rhode Island’s HealthSource RI and the District of Columbia’s DC Health Link. Signs up close Thursday everywhere else.

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