Mississippi Health Insurance Marketplace Guide

To qualify for health coverage through the Marketplace in Mississippi, you must:⁶

• Live in Mississippi.
• Be lawfully present in the United States
• Not be incarcerated.
• Not be enrolled in Medicare

Eligibility for financial assistance (premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions) depends on your household income. In addition, to qualify for financial assistance with your Marketplace plan you must:

• Not have access to affordable health coverage from an employer. If your employer offers coverage but you feel it’s too expensive, you can use our Employer Health Plan Affordability Calculator to see if you might qualify for premium subsidies in the Marketplace. 
• Not be eligible for Medicaid or CHIP.
• Not be eligible for premium-free Medicare Part A.⁷
• If married, file a joint tax return⁸ (with very limited exceptions)⁹
• Not be able to be claimed by someone else as a tax dependent.⁸

The open enrollment period to sign up for 2027 ACA-compliant individual and family health plans is expected to run from November 1, 2026 through January 15, 2027 in Mississippi.

In 2025, HHS finalized a rule change that would have shortened the enrollment window starting in the fall of 2026, ending it in mid-December. A judge vacated that rule change in June 2026, but HHS appealed in July 2026.¹⁰ So as of early August 2026, there was still some uncertainty regarding the open enrollment schedule for 2027 coverage

Regardless of the outcome of the lawsuit, however, consumers should plan to enroll by December 15. Even if open enrollment continues until mid-January, December 15 will be the final day to pick a plan with a January 1 effective date.

Outside of open enrollment, a special enrollment period (usually triggered by a specific qualifying life event) is necessary to enroll or make changes to your coverage.

If you have questions about open enrollment, you can learn more in our comprehensive guide to open enrollment. We also have a comprehensive guide to special enrollment periods. 

There are several ways to enroll in an ACA Marketplace plan in Mississippi:

• Online through HealthCare.gov
• By phone at (800) 318-2596
• With the help of a broker, Navigator, or certified application counselors (these individuals can provide help online, over the phone, or in person, depending on your needs)
• Via an approved enhanced direct enrollment entity.¹¹

Under the Affordable Care Act (ACA), there are income-based subsidies that can help lower your premium payments each month. These subsidies are available to Mississippi residents who meet the eligibility requirements and enroll in Marketplace coverage.

Almost all of Mississippi’s exchange enrollees – 95% – qualified for premium subsidies (advance premium tax credits, or APTC) during the open enrollment period for 2026, with an average savings of $718/month. These subsidies reduced the average subsidy-eligible enrollee’s premium to about $94/month.¹²

But even still, average net premiums grew significantly in 2026, due to the expiration of federal subsidy enhancements at the end of 2025. Including those who pay full-price for their coverage, the average after-subsidy premium for Mississippi Marketplace enrollees was:

• $41/month in 2025¹³
• $131/month in 2026¹⁴

In addition to premium subsidies, the Affordable Care Act provides cost-sharing reductions (CSR) to people whose household income isn’t more than 250% of the poverty level, as long as they select a Silver-level plan through the Marketplace.¹⁵

Between the premium subsidies and cost-sharing reductions, you may find that an ACA Marketplace plan in Mississippi provides the best value for your family’s health coverage.

Source: CMS.gov¹²

Mississippi has not yet expanded Medicaid under the ACA, so there is still a coverage gap in the state. Adults under age 65 who are not disabled and who don’t have minor children are not eligible for Mississippi Medicaid, regardless of how low their income is. And Marketplace subsidies are not available if your income is below the poverty level. Roughly 71,000 low-income adults in Mississippi are in the coverage gap due to the state’s refusal to implement Medicaid expansion.¹⁶

For 2027 coverage, at least three insurers will offer coverage in the Mississippi Marketplace. There are five participating insurers in 2026, but at least one, and possibly two, will exit at the end of 2026 (see below for more details on 2027 premium changes). 

Cigna is exiting the Mississippi Marketplace (as is the case in all states where Cigna offers Marketplace coverage) at the end of 2026.

Molina might be exiting the Mississippi Marketplace. There’s no publicly available rate filing for Molina for 2027 coverage in Mississippi,¹⁷ and Molina executives have said that the carrier’s footprint will shrink significantly in 2027.¹⁸

There are two additional carriers, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Mississippi and Celtic, that only offer plans outside the Marketplace in Mississippi, where premium subsidies cannot be used.¹⁷

The following average premium changes for 2027 have been proposed by the insurers that offer plans through the Mississippi Marketplace, applicable to full-price (pre-subsidy) premiums:¹⁷ 

Source: RateReview.HealthCare.gov¹⁷ 

Based on market share reported in the filings for UnitedHealthcare, Ambetter, and Oscar, the proposed weighted average rate increase for 2027 is 21.8%.¹⁹ But that doesn’t include the people with Cigna, who will need to select a new plan, or the people with Molina, who may need to select a new plan.

For the last few years, Mississippi has been one of just two states (the other is Indiana) where the cost of cost-sharing reductions is spread across plans at all metal levels (broad loading), instead of being added only to Silver plan rates (Silver loading). West Virginia also took that approach through 2021, but transitioned to a Silver loading approach as of 2022. However, a review of rate filing memos for 2027 indicates that Mississippi may have switched to Silver loading.²⁰

Silver loading makes coverage more affordable in many cases, because it increases the price of Silver-level plans, and subsidy amounts are based on the cost of the second-lowest-cost Silver plan.

For perspective, here’s an overview of how average full-price (pre-subsidy) premiums have changed over time in Mississippi’s individual/family market (note that these averages include BCBS of MS, which only offers coverage outside the Marketplace):

• 2015: Average decrease of 19%.²¹
• 2016: Average increase of 14.9%.²²
• 2017: Average increase of 15.8%.²³
• 2018: Average increase of 38%.²⁴
• 2019: Average increase of 0.2%.²⁵
• 2020: Average increase of 0.3%.²⁶
• 2021: Average increase of 2.7%.²⁷
• 2022: Average increase of 3.8%.²⁸
• 2023: Average increase of 5.3%.²⁹
• 2024: Average increase of 2.3%³⁰
• 2025: Average increase of 1.8%³¹
• 2026: Average increase of 43.4%³²

In Mississippi, 313,392 people enrolled in private plans through the Mississippi Marketplace during the open enrollment period for 2026.¹²

This was a decline from 2025’s record-high enrollment (see chart below), which was due in large part to the American Rescue Plan (ARP). Under the ARP, the ACA’s premium subsidies were larger and more widely available, and that was extended through 2025 by the Inflation Reduction Act.³³ But those subsidy enhancements expired at the end of 2025, leading to a decline in enrollment in 2026. 

The enrollment spike in 2024 and 2025 was also due to the “unwinding” of the pandemic-era Medicaid continuous coverage rule. For three years, states didn’t disenroll anyone from Medicaid, but disenrollments resumed in the spring of 2023, and some people who lost Medicaid subsequently enrolled in Marketplace coverage. CMS reported that by April 2024, more than 70,000 Mississippi residents had transitioned from Medicaid to a Marketplace plan during the unwinding period.³⁴

Source: 2014,³⁵ 2015,³⁶ 2016,³⁷ 2017,³⁸ 2018,³⁹ 2019,⁴⁰ 2020,⁴¹ 2021,⁴² 2022,⁴³ 2023,³³ 2024,⁴⁴ 2025⁴⁵ 2026 ¹²

HealthCare.gov
800-318-2596

State Exchange Profile: Mississippi
The Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation overview of Mississippi’s progress toward creating a state health insurance exchange.

Health Help Mississippi
Assists people insured by private health plans, Medicaid, or other plans in resolving problems pertaining to their health coverage; assists uninsured residents with access to care.
(877) 314-3843 / [email protected]