The Arkansas Insurance Department (AID) has approved an average rate increase of 22.2% for individual health plans for the 2026 plan year. This is down from a 36.1% average increase that insurers previously proposed but withdrew in the face of opposition from Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders. The approved rates were first announced by Sanders in a September 19 news release.
The rate increases approved by AID are the third set of increases that Arkansas insurers proposed for 2026. In June, insurers filed proposed increases that, weighted for market share, amounted to an average increase of 26.2% for individual on- and off-market plans — i.e., individual plans offered through the Arkansas Health Insurance Marketplace and individual plans offered outside the marketplace. Insurers refiled in August, proposing an unprecedented average rate increase of 36.1%. AID ultimately approved an average rate increase of 22.2% — substantially lower than what insurers proposed in August, but still the largest one-year increase on record in Arkansas.
Insurers also proposed an average rate increase of 7.9% for small group off-market plans in June. Those proposed increases were unchanged in the August refile and were approved by AID without significant changes…