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Charles Gaba, via a trick that presents itself to the highly motivated, has got hold of the 2026 Public Use Files (PUFs) for the ACA marketplace before they’re officially announced and has parsed them 26 ways. He’s also kindly shared the trick, and so the file.
I want to continue my focus on the degradation of coverage — that is, the shift to lower metal levels, and in particular, the shift away from silver among those eligible for strong Cost Sharing Reduction (CSR), which raises the actuarial value of a silver plan from a baseline of 70% to 94% (at incomes up to 150% of the Federal Poverty level) or 87% (for those in the 150-200% FPL) range.*
For starters, here is the metal level breakdown for all states in 2025 vs. 2026.
Accelerating a multi-year trend, silver selection fell sharply. a shift modestly offset by an increase in gold selection, as three states (Washington, Arkansas, Illinois) newly implemented strict silver loading in 2026, rendering gold plans less expensive than silver (in Illinois and Arkansas, 31% of enrollees selected gold plans, and in Washington, 51% selected gold).
