Maryland wraps up 2026 Open Enrollment Period up 3.4% y/y thanks to backfilling ~60% of lost federal tax credits

The Maryland Health Benefit Exchange has their own Open Enrollment dashboard which, while not providing nearly as much data as New Mexico's, at least breaks out the top-line data. With the 2026 Open Enrollment Period (OEP) now over in the Old Line State, here's what their final numbers look like (barring any last-minute clerical corrections):

• Total Renewals: 236,338
• New Enrollees: 47,815
• Total Enrollments: 255,612
• Disenrollments (already subtracted from renewals)
• 67.4% are subsidized; 32.6% are unsubsidized

They also break out total enrollment by county, which isn't terribly relevant to me.

Final 2025 OEP enrollment in Maryland was 247,243, so this represents a 3.4% QHP selection increase vs. last year, in spite of the enhanced federal tax credits expiring...

...for a fairly obvious reason: Like New Mexico, Maryland is backfilling a huge chunk of those lost tax credits (although not all of them the way New Mexico is):

However, the state has created a new subsidy program for all ages for those who are under 400% of the federal poverty level to help offset the expiration of the enhanced federal subsidies. The state subsidy program will replace 100% of the enhanced federal subsidies for those under 200% of federal poverty level and will replace 50% of the enhanced federal subsidies for those between 200% and 400% of the federal poverty level. Those over 400% of the poverty level will not receive a state subsidy, and will be most impacted by the loss of federal enhanced APTC, unless Congress takes immediate action.

In 2025, around 42% of Maryland ACA enrollees (roughly 104.4K people) earned less than 200% FPL, and another 32% earned 200 - 400% FPL (around 79.6K people).

It's worth noting that over 25,000 of the < 200% crowd actually earned less than 100% FPL last year; just about all of these were likely documented immigrants who have lived in the United States for less than 5 years, which the ACA made eligible for federal tax credits until the OBBA bill was passed by Republicans lasts summer.

I don't know the average dollar amount each of these populations received in enhanced tax credits, but this basically means around 60% of the lost subsidies (give or take) are being covered by the state.