“The overwhelming reason average benchmark premiums are coming down in 2019 is because premiums went up by so much in 2018."

—Larry Levitt, Senior Vice President of Kaiser Family Foundation

After the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act (PPACA) regulations took effect in 2014, average individual market premiums more than doubled from $2,784 per year in 2013 to $5,712 on HealthCare.gov in 2017, an increase of $2,928 or 105 percent. In the HealthCare.gov states, between 2017 and 2018, the average premium for the second-lowest cost silver plan increased by 37 percent. Between 2016 and 2017, the hike in average premiums was 25 percent.

Excerpted from: CMS.gov