When Is Open Enrollment 2027? Dates, Deadlines, and What's Still on Appeal

The dates

One more thing about that January 15 date: it's the last day to sign up, not the safe day. Wait past December 15 and, unless healthcare.gov re-enrolls you automatically, you go without coverage for January.

If you live in Georgia

Georgia runs its own marketplace, Georgia Access, instead of healthcare.gov. Its renew-or-update-coverage page gives November 1, 2026 as the day open enrollment begins and December 15, 2026 as the last day to enroll in a plan that starts January 1, 2027. Its instructions to insurers, updated August 10, 2026, give the open enrollment period as "11/01/2026 - 01/15/2027", and its after-enrollment page says a plan picked December 16 through January 15 starts February 1.

The January 15 close is in Georgia's instructions to insurers and its after-enrollment page (which names no year), and on the consumer page, where that line still says "2026 coverage". Treat it as likely, not settled, and check georgiaaccess.gov before you plan around it.

I'm not an agent on Georgia Access, so I can't enroll anyone in Georgia marketplace coverage. You enroll yourself at georgiaaccess.gov. Here's what I can do if you're in Georgia. I can walk you through how a marketplace plan works. I can read a plan summary you send me and tell you what I see. And I can look at private medically underwritten health, life, or supplemental coverage with you.

What changed for your bill

The extra premium tax credits that started in 2021 ended December 31, 2025. As of the date at the top of this page, Congress hasn't passed a law bringing them back. Two things follow from that.

The 400 percent cutoff is back

For 2027 coverage, if your household income is above 400 percent of the federal poverty line, you don't get a premium tax credit at all. The poverty line that counts is the one published in January 2026, because the rules use the figures in effect on the first day of open enrollment. For the lower 48 states, which covers every state I'm licensed in, that puts the cutoff here:

The credit works by capping what a benchmark silver plan costs you as a share of your income. For 2027 that share tops out at 10.22 percent if you're between 300 and 400 percent of the poverty line, and it steps down to 2.15 percent below 133 percent. Under the rules that ended with 2025 the top of that table was 8.5 percent. That's most of why a bill that looked fine in 2025 looks different now.

The repayment cap is gone

If the marketplace paid more credit on your behalf than your final income supports, you pay back the whole difference on your tax return. That's true at every income level now. That rule took effect for tax year 2026, so it hits the return you file in early 2027. It's why the income estimate you give the marketplace matters more than it used to. If your income changes during the year, report it.

Some rules you may have read about in 2025 never took effect. The same court blocked the $5 charge for letting a fully subsidized plan renew on its own, the rule that you'd have to pay past-due premiums before enrolling again, and the extra paperwork checks for special enrollment periods. One change did stick. The year-round enrollment window for people under 150 percent of the poverty line ended in August 2025. Miss open enrollment now and you're usually waiting for the next one or for a qualifying life event.

What to do before November 1

1. Find your renewal notice. Your marketplace has to send an open enrollment notice between October 1 and November 1. Your insurer sends its own. Read both, because they tell you what your current plan will cost and whether it's changing.
2. Write down a realistic 2027 income estimate. Count everything: wages, self-employment, investment income, retirement withdrawals. With the repayment cap gone, guessing low costs you at tax time. If you're self-employed in Florida and you have employees of your own, what I can set up for them is voluntary supplemental benefits, not a group health plan, and that's its own guide: small business benefits in Florida.
3. Check your doctors. Look up every doctor, hospital, and prescription you rely on against the plan you're considering, not the one you have. Networks change at renewal. If you're weighing the large carriers against each other, I've written about how the Aetna, Cigna, and UnitedHealthcare networks differ.
4. Know that 2027 prices aren't final yet. When I wrote this, what existed were the rates insurers proposed to state regulators, and KFF's August 3, 2026 analysis counts them as proposals, not final prices. You'll see the real numbers for your county on healthcare.gov once 2027 plans are posted. Until then, treat any figure you read as an estimate.

If you want the longer version of what the end of the enhanced credits did to families in Florida, I wrote it here: Florida's 2026 ACA subsidy cliff.

Questions I get about the dates

Sources

Every dated claim above, with the document I read, its date, and its status.

• Open enrollment November 1, 2026 to January 15, 2027 on healthcare.gov: CMS, Updated Statement regarding the Failure to File and Reconcile requirement for Plan Years 2026-2027, July 27, 2026. In effect, agency statement. Restated in CMS, Statement Regarding City of Columbus v. Kennedy, No. 1:26-cv-02215, July 31, 2026, and its Updated Statement of August 4, 2026. In effect.
• December 15 for a January 1 start, December 16 to January 15 for a February 1 start, and the November 1 start for 2027 coverage: HealthCare.gov, Dates and deadlines, read September 13, 2026. In effect.
• The 2025 rule that would have closed healthcare.gov's window on December 15 from 2027: Marketplace Integrity and Affordability final rule, 90 FR 27074, June 25, 2025, effective August 25, 2025. Final rule; the open enrollment provisions were vacated.
• The vacatur: City of Columbus v. Kennedy, No. 1:25-cv-02114-BAH (D. Md.), Order of June 12, 2026 as amended June 16, 2026 (ECF 76), item 3(e). Vacated; on appeal.
• The appeal and the argument date: City of Columbus v. Robert Kennedy, Jr., No. 26-1938 (4th Cir.), the court's Oral Argument Notification, filed August 27, 2026, which sets argument for October 30, 2026 (the copy on Georgetown Law's Health Care Litigation Tracker, read September 24, 2026). Pending appeal; no decision and no stay of the vacatur as of September 13, 2026.
• The enhanced premium tax credits ended December 31, 2025, the 400 percent cutoff for 2027, and the 8.5 percent top of the 2021 to 2025 table: 26 U.S.C. 36B, subsections (b)(3)(A)(iii) and (c)(1)(A) and (E), text containing laws in effect on September 11, 2026. In effect (the temporary table: expired). No public law extending them appears in the 119th Congress list at govinfo.gov as of the same date.
• The 2027 applicable percentage table (2.15 percent to 10.22 percent): IRS Rev. Proc. 2026-26, effective for tax years beginning in 2027. In effect.
• Full repayment of excess advance credit from tax year 2026: Public Law 119-21, section 71305, July 4, 2025: "The amendments made by this section shall apply to taxable years beginning after December 31, 2025." In effect.
• 2026 poverty guidelines: HHS, Annual Update of the HHS Poverty Guidelines, 91 FR 1797, published January 15, 2026, effective January 13, 2026. In effect. Which year's guidelines apply: 45 CFR 155.300 and 26 U.S.C. 36B(d)(3)(B).
• The $5 charge, the past-due premium rule, and the special enrollment period checks blocked: ECF 76 above, items 3(a), 3(b), and 3(d); the 2027 version of the enrollment checks stayed July 16, 2026 per the CMS statement of July 31, 2026. Not in effect.
• The year-round window under 150 percent of poverty ended August 25, 2025: 90 FR 27074 above, effective that day, paused it through plan year 2026 by rewriting 45 CFR 155.420(d)(16) to apply only "Beginning plan year 2027" (90 FR 27223). The HHS Notice of Benefit and Payment Parameters for 2027, 91 FR 29526, May 20, 2026, effective July 20, 2026, then removed the paragraph, starting with plan year 2027 (91 FR 29867). The paragraph is absent from 45 CFR 155.420 on eCFR as of September 29, 2026. In effect.
• Open enrollment notice between October 1 and November 1: 45 CFR 155.410(d), eCFR as of September 10, 2026. In effect.
• 2027 rates are proposed, not final: KFF, How Much and Why ACA Marketplace Premiums Are Going Up in 2027, August 3, 2026. Secondary; used only for the word "proposed."
• Georgia dates: Georgia Access, PY 2027 QHP Application Instructions for Issuers, updated August 10, 2026, the version linked from georgiaaccess.gov/insurance-companies/ (read October 3, 2026): section 2 timeline row "Open Enrollment Period | N/A | 11/01/2026 - 01/15/2027", the same since the June 30, 2026 revision per its change log. Primary, issuer-facing. Consumer dates: georgiaaccess.gov/renew-or-update-coverage/, last modified September 30, 2026 at 18:35 UTC per its own metadata, read October 3, 2026: "November 1, 2026 Open enrollment begins!" and "December 15, 2026 This is the last day to enroll into a plan for coverage starting January 1, 2027." Primary, consumer-facing. Coverage start dates: georgiaaccess.gov/after-enrollment/, undated, read October 3, 2026.
• Which states use healthcare.gov and which run their own marketplace for 2027: CMS, States by Marketplace Type for Plan Year 2027, page last modified September 1, 2026. In effect.
• What happens outside open enrollment: HealthCare.gov, Getting health coverage outside Open Enrollment, read September 13, 2026. In effect.

One note on the law books: the codified text of 45 CFR 155.410(e)(5) and (f)(4) on eCFR still shows the December 31 and nine-week language the court vacated, because the code hasn't been conformed to the ruling. The operative dates are the ones in the CMS statements above.