Your Health Plan Is Ending: What to Do Before December 15

Published October 2, 2026 · Daniel Griffin, Licensed Independent Advisor · NPN #22052447

If a letter from your health insurer says your plan will not be renewed for 2027, your coverage ends on December 31, 2026. To have a new plan start January 1 with no gap, you need to choose one by December 15. Here is what the letter means, what to check before you pick, and what happens if you put it in a drawer.

It is not a rare letter. Comparing CMS's plan files for 2025 and 2026 county by county: 593 of the 1,491 counties in the 17 HealthCare.gov states covered here lost at least one marketplace insurer from one year to the next. In Kansas it was 104 of 105 counties. For 2027, Cigna is leaving the individual market in every state it sold in, and several smaller insurers are leaving single states (the list, state by state).

Three Letters That Look Alike

1. “We are leaving.” The insurer will not sell marketplace plans in your state, or in your county, next year. Federal rules require 180 days’ notice when an insurer leaves a state’s individual market entirely, so for plans ending January 1 that letter has to go out by early July. Your plan ends December 31 and nothing you do keeps it.

2. “Your plan is being discontinued.” The insurer is staying but dropping your plan, or pulling out of your county. That takes 90 days’ notice, which puts these letters in September and the first days of October. It usually names the plan the insurer will move you into. This is the more common letter: in the same CMS comparison, about one in five plans offered by insurers that stayed were not back under the same plan ID the next year — replaced, renumbered or dropped.

3. “Your plan is renewing.” Insurers must send this before Open Enrollment starts on November 1. It is the one people bin, and it still deserves a read: the premium, deductible, network and drug list can all change while the plan keeps its name (what moves without asking).

What Happens If You Do Nothing

On HealthCare.gov you do not simply lose coverage. The marketplace re-enrolls you by rule. If your insurer is staying, you go into the plan it named as your replacement. If your insurer is leaving, you can be placed with a different company at roughly the same metal level.

That rule matches on metal level and price. It does not look at your doctors, your hospital or your prescriptions, and nobody calls you before it runs. People find out in January, at a pharmacy counter or a front desk. The full ladder is in how automatic re-enrollment works.

What to Check Before You Pick

1. Your doctors and hospital. Look each one up in the directory for the specific plan, not the insurer. Networks are set plan by plan, so the same company can have your doctor in one plan and not the next.
2. Your prescriptions. Check the drug list for each plan you are considering. A medication on a low tier in one plan can sit two tiers higher in another, and the difference shows up every month.
3. The whole-year cost. Add twelve months of premium to the deductible you would realistically meet. The cheapest premium is often not the cheapest year.
4. Your 2027 income estimate. The premium tax credit stops at 400% of the poverty line. For 2027 coverage that is $63,840 for one person, $86,560 for two and $132,000 for a family of four. From the 2026 tax year there is no cap on paying back a credit you turn out not to have earned (how sharp that line is).
5. Whether the marketplace is still the right place. A forced move costs you nothing extra to rethink. If you are healthy and above that income line, price coverage outside the marketplace too. If anyone in the household has a real health history, stay on the marketplace, where nobody can be turned down.

The Dates

Read the last row twice. If your plan ends December 31 and you choose a new one on December 20, you have no coverage for January. December 15 is the real deadline for anyone whose plan is ending. Colorado, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Nevada and Virginia run their own marketplaces and set their own closing dates, but December 15 still gets you a January 1 start in all of them (dates by state).

Sources

• 45 CFR § 147.106: 90 days’ notice to discontinue a product (c)(1), 180 days to leave a market (d)(1), renewal notices before open enrollment (f).
• CMS, Qualified Health Plan Landscape files, individual market medical, plan years 2025 and 2026, from data.healthcare.gov. The county counts and plan-ID comparison are this site's own analysis of those files for the 17 HealthCare.gov states covered here.
• HHS, 2026 poverty guidelines: the 400% figures for 2027 coverage.
• IRS, Questions and Answers on the Premium Tax Credit: no repayment cap for tax years after 2025.
• HealthCare.gov, dates and deadlines.

“Lost an insurer” means the company sold marketplace plans in the county for 2025 and filed none there for 2026; it does not cover plans sold outside the marketplace, and an insurer that re-filed through a sister company counts as staying. Nothing here is tax advice. Medically underwritten coverage is not available in every state and acceptance depends on health history. Nothing here is an offer of coverage. Daniel Griffin is a licensed independent insurance agent, NPN #22052447, not tied to any single carrier and not affiliated with the U.S. government.