Healthcare

Annual Health Insurance Premiums Cost Double A Mortgage In Alabama

A hospital room. (Screen Capture/PBS North Carolina Channel)

Premiums and out-of-pocket expenses for health insurance can cost more than double the monthly mortgage rate of a sweet home in Alabama, according to a recent report.

A well-known insurance provider holds a near-monopoly on Alabama’s private health insurance market and cost a family of three well over $50,000 a year, according to an article written by independent journalist and former New York Times reporter Alex Berenson and posted on his Unreported Truths Substack on Oct. 29.

Alabama resident Cristopher Hoyt received a renewal notice for his family’s 2027 health insurance plan from BlueCross Blue Shield to the tune of $4,287.61 a month — an increase of almost 36 percent compared to this year, Berenson reports.

In 2025, Hoyt paid BlueCross BlueShield just under $2,487 a month for insurance for his family which added up to a $30,000 annual billing. In 2026, the company raised his rates almost 30 percent — to $3,156 a month — with an almost $38,000 billing, Hoyt told Berenson.

This means Blue Cross Blue Shield in Alabama raised its premium costs over 70 percent in the past two years.

For next year, Hoyt’s new more than $4,000 premium payment is more than double the cost of the average American monthly mortgage payment and his in-network maximum rose to $12,000. That means Hoyt will have to pay $51,451.32 to cover himself, his wife and his 21-year-old son for 2027, Berenson found.

The median monthly mortgage payment for homeowners in the U.S. was $2,134, Bankrate reported in June.

Health Insurer BlueCross BlueShield has the tightest hold on any other state with an 84 percent share on Alabama, according to the American Medical Association.

According to its website, Blue Cross Blue Shield Association (BCBSA) is a national association of independent, community-based and locally operated Blue Cross Blue Shield companies that provides coverage to more than 115 million people across the United States and owns trademarks in 170 countries around the world.

Because BCBSA functions as a hospital system, it technically functions as a non-profit which means it can jump through a number of price-transparency loopholes, Berenson reported.

BlueCross’s executives are shielded from reporting their salaries to the public after an Alabama ruling, Berenson said.

In 2015, Alabama passed a law hiding their salaries from the public according to AL.com. This means it does not file Form 990s with the IRS.

The only other state that has a similar hold from a single company is Kentucky where Elevance Health — an arm of Blue Cross Blue Shield — holds over 65 percent of the market, Berenson recorded.

Hoyt and his wife have a stake in a successful family business and will be able to pay the increase, according to Berenson.

“Whether I can afford to pay the increase or not, I still believe the system is extraordinarily broken and benefits hospitals, insurance companies, and drug companies,” Hoyt told Berenson.