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Health insurers are losing money in the individual market, and consumers could ultimately bear the cost through higher premiums, reduced benefits, and fewer plan choices.

Jae Oh, author of “Maximize Your Medicare,” said preliminary filings suggest that premiums could rise substantially in 2027. Some insurers also may withdraw from markets where covering policyholders has become unprofitable.

That will make comparison shopping more consequential. Consumers may need to weigh a higher monthly premium against the deductibles, benefits, and financial exposure that can accompany a less-generous plan.

Below is a transcript of the interview with Oh, edited for brevity and clarity.

What insurer losses could mean

Bob Powell: Losses are piling up for health insurance companies, and that could create problems for people enrolled in Affordable Care Act plans. What do consumers need to know?

Jae Oh: We have seen many headlines about the premium tax credit ending at the end of 2025. Once people saw the full sticker price of their health insurance premiums in 2026, on top of persistent increases in the cost of living, cancellations occurred across the board.

Enrollment declined by roughly 20% from 2025 to 2026. That is a rough figure.

Policyholders are under financial stress, but so are insurers. Doctors and hospitals are experiencing their own pressures, and each part of the health care system has data showing elevated financial strain.

Individual insurers are taking it on the chin.

Why lower enrollment may raise costs

Powell: Wouldn’t lower enrollment reduce insurers’ expenses?

Oh: Lower enrollment won’t necessarily translate into lower losses because the people who stay in the plans are the costly people to the carrier.

Although premiums increased in 2025, the cost of serving policyholders rose even faster, according to recent data. The difference was roughly 10%. That is stunning.

How much premiums could increase

Powell: What should people enrolled in these plans do? Should they expect to absorb additional premium increases as medical expenses continue to climb?

Oh: I think higher premiums are inevitable. We have already seen preliminary, state-by-state filings for 2027.

I would use 12% to 15% as a working estimate for the average premium increase, almost irrespective of where you live. In some places, the increase could be higher.

Should consumers choose leaner coverage

Powell: How are households responding to those increases?

Oh: Some households have reduced the quality or degree of benefits in their plans. Someone enrolled in a more robust plan may move to one offering fewer benefits. We have seen that happen, and we will likely continue to see it.

That is not necessarily bad. It has made people think about what insurance actually is.

Health insurance should not be misunderstood as a coupon or voucher. It is a protective measure that people purchase to protect themselves from catastrophic loss. That is the function of insurance.

For very healthy people, moving to a less-robust plan may make sense.

What insurance is designed to do

Powell: Insurance traditionally protects against events that occur infrequently but could produce severe financial losses. Have we come to misunderstand the purpose of health insurance by treating it as a coupon or voucher?

Oh: Yes. People encounter many different narratives through social media, news reports, and conversations with friends. Those narratives, along with behavioral biases, can distort the takeaway.

People should keep the larger purpose of insurance in mind so they can make the best decisions for themselves.

Why insurers may leave markets

Powell: Health plans reportedly recorded nearly $10.4 billion in losses in 2025. What could that mean for individual consumers?

Oh: Insurers have several levers. The first is that they can simply withdraw from a market.

We are going to see that in the individual market in 2027, with large carriers withdrawing entirely from certain locations.

We have seen something similar in Medicare. Medicare Advantage carriers have exited certain markets.

Insurers also have reduced payments to insurance producers, including me, in certain locations. That can limit enrollment. A carrier may remain in the market but discourage a large influx of members because some of those members are likely to generate losses.

Individual households will have to contend with those changes. Keeping up to date on available plans has always been wise, but it will become even more important over the next several years.

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.Why we love this deal

A hoodie is a great wardrobe essential to have on hand for a variety of different occasions. Whether you’re running errands, working from home, or simply relaxing on the couch, a hoodie will keep you feeling super comfortable while also looking stylish.

When it comes to casual wear, Hanes is a beloved brand that knows its stuff—and the Hanes Ecosmart Fleece Hoodie is a perfect example. The hoodie, which you can snap up at Walmart, is loved by shoppers, who have given it over 8,600 five-star ratings. And right now, you can get your hands on it at an incredible price. Starting from only $8, it’s currently on sale for up to 70% off its original price of $27. 

Hanes Ecosmart Fleece Hoodie, From $8 (was $27) at Walmart

Courtesy of Walmart

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Details to know

The hoodie is available in 26 stylish colorways, including maroon, royal blue, pale pink, gray, black, forest green, and teal. Available in sizes small to 5XL, it’s an inclusive style that will fit many shapes and sizes. Though it’s designed in a slightly relaxed fit, we’d recommend that you size up if you prefer your hoodies to be on the looser side.

It’s made from a soft and cozy 50% cotton and 50% polyester fabric blend with double-needle stitching for added durability. While the hoodie is sold as part of the Hanes men’s range, it’s a great unisex option.

Related: Walmart’s $15 hoodie comes in 32 colors, and it’s the perfect fall layer

Why do shoppers love it?

Shoppers are thrilled with the “comfortable and warm” hoodie. “My favorite go-to hoodie. Soft inside, warm, and stylish, [it] matches everything and [is] my go-to when I need to throw something on. I think I own two in every color now,” one shopper said. “The more you wear and wash them, the more you’ll love them!”

“I have bought many hoodies over the years, and Hanes hoodies are the best,” another wrote. “They are true to size and wash up well.”

“Excellent quality, soft, warm, flattering appearance, and immediate compliments from strangers asking where I got it,” a third explained. “Definitely would recommend it, and would buy again. [I am] currently ordering in another color.”

If you’re looking to update your casual wardrobe, shop the Hanes Ecosmart Fleece Hoodie from only $8 at Walmart. To complete the look, consider pairing the hoodie with these Hanes fleece sweatpants that are also on sale. 

A hundred years ago, International Business Machines Corporation (IBM) built machines that helped the United States count its census.

On September 10, 2026, it did something stranger. It opened a quantum computing lab tied to Swiss defense spending, then released an open-source AI model built to map the moon.

Most companies pick one narrative and repeat it until investors believe it. IBM picked two, on the same day, with two entirely different partners: a defense contractor and a space agency.

A Swiss quantum lab taps IBM’s newest asset

The quantum hub is not really a research story. It is a fighter jet story. Switzerland’s offset agreement with Lockheed Martin Corporation (LMT) traces back to a 2021 order for 36 F-35A jets, a deal worth $9.1 billion.

That purchase created a Lockheed Martin offset obligation worth about $3 billion, or 60% of the contract’s value, according to armasuisse figures reported by The Defense Watch.

Most of that obligation has gone toward manufacturing work such as engine training systems, canopy components and ammunition production.

A quantum lab at ETH Zurich is a different kind of payback. It will host Switzerland’s first IBM Quantum System Two by the end of 2026, according to IBM’s newsroom. The shift toward advanced technology, rather than factory work, comes as the F-35 deal faces political pressure over cost overruns and U.S. tariffs, according to DefenseMirror.

IBM, not Lockheed, actually supplies and operates that machine. Lockheed gets credit toward a binding obligation tied to jets it already sold. IBM gets a government-funded showcase for its hardware, arriving through a defense contractor’s political obligation rather than a commercial sale IBM would have had to win outright.

The timing sharpens that read. IBM completed its acquisition of HRL Laboratories in late August, according to a company release, adding in-house expertise in quantum sensing.

Quantum sensing for navigation is one of two joint research areas named for the hub, according to IBM’s newsroom. That is exactly the capability IBM just bought. IBM is not licensing hardware to a defense partner. It is running technology it acquired three weeks earlier, inside a deal structured to satisfy someone else’s political obligation.

IBM and Lockheed Martin opened a Swiss quantum computing hub the same day IBM and NASA released an open-source AI model to study the moon’s surface.Thomas Niedermueller / Getty Images

NASA and IBM open-source a lunar AI model

Hours after the Zurich announcement, IBM and the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) released the NASA IBM Lunar Foundation Model, according to IBM’s newsroom.

The model is trained on decades of lunar observation data and made freely available. Reuters covered the release, noting it is meant to help identify ice, craters and other lunar surface features.

The model outperforms widely used detection methods by up to 23% when identifying potential ice deposits, craters and volcanic formations, according to IBM. That gain is not uniform. Improvement on volcanic features is closer to 3%, according to The Next Web, reminding readers that headline statistics can mask a more modest average.

More IBM:

IBM takes another giant step in the AI race

IBM CEO sends blunt message on quantum computing

IBM quietly cleared a quantum computing hurdle experts doubted

The model runs on TerraTorch, an open-source toolkit IBM built for geospatial AI, according to The Next Web. That toolkit has an obvious civilian use mapping lunar ice for NASA’s Artemis program, and an equally obvious one in satellite analysis for defense clients.

IBM is not building two AI stacks for two customers. It is building one and licensing access to both.

IBM shares fell even as good news piled up

IBM trades on the New York Stock Exchange and remains widely held by pension funds and index investors. Shares closed at $234.02 on September 10, down 2.47% on the day, even as MarketBeat flagged both partnerships as positive news.

The stock has had a rough year. Shares sit nearly 30% below the 52-week high of $332.46 they touched earlier in 2026. The steepest drop came in mid-July, the stock’s worst single trading day in decades, according to Fortune.

CEO Arvind Krishna admitted the company had not adapted quickly enough.

IBM Z mainframe sales fell 42% last quarter, dragging the broader infrastructure segment down 7%, according to Evercore ISI estimates. That signals where investor worry still sits. Not every analyst reads the selloff as a warning.

Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani argues investors are getting exposure to IBM’s quantum initiatives essentially for free at current prices, according to MarketWatch.

Wall Street holds an overall Buy consensus on IBM stock. Twenty-five analysts set a 12-month price target of $245.35, a 4.84% increase from current levels, according to stockanalysis.com.

Key takeaways on IBM

Quantum Hardware Timeline: Switzerland’s first IBM Quantum System Two arrives by late 2026, powered by IBM’s new Nighthawk processor.

Open-Source Lunar AI: The NASA-IBM lunar foundation model and dataset are freely available on Hugging Face and GitHub, drawing on 30+ data layers across four NASA missions.

Investor Safety Net: IBM maintains a 2.89% annualized dividend yield, providing income support while mainframe hardware sales recover.

The next test comes at IBM’s October earnings

Switzerland is not the only F-35 buyer carrying an offset obligation like this one. Finland’s own F-35 purchase is worth about $10 billion. It carries a similar industrial participation requirement: 30% of the contract price, according to Finland’s Ministry of Defence. So far, that money has gone mostly to fuselage and engine assembly work, not laboratories.

Switzerland’s tech hub version of an offset deal is new. It hands Lockheed, and any rival negotiating its own offset terms, a template that skips the factory floor entirely.

That distinction should matter more to investors than any other press release. Evercore ISI analyst Amit Daryanani has argued that investors are getting IBM’s quantum bet essentially for free at current prices. That case grows stronger every time a government funds an installation rather than IBM winning a commercial sale.

IBM’s quantum book of business already tops $1 billion and is growing every quarter, according to Evercore ISI estimates cited by Yahoo Finance. None of that shows up in the number the market keeps punishing, which is IBM Z mainframe revenue.

The next real test lands at IBM’s next earnings report, scheduled for October 21, according to stockanalysis.com. Investors will get a fresh mainframe number that day, and the stock will likely trade on it regardless.

What deserves more attention is whether IBM discloses how much of its quantum backlog now runs through offset deals like Switzerland’s. That revenue is government-funded and never had to win a competitive commercial bid to exist.

Related: IBM CEO sends blunt message on quantum computing

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Why we love this collection

Hints of fall have been breaking through, with cooler temperatures, less humidity, and even leaves starting to change. That means our wardrobes are changing, too, from more layers to the accessories we’re wearing. While fall is most associated with rich earthy tones, like browns, oranges, and deep greens, we’re seeing pops of color make their way into the mainstream for this upcoming season.

In Coach Outlet’s September drop, we spotted one eye-catching color that we’re more than happy to wear this fall. Its new magenta colorway is vibrant, rich, and a fall must-have in an unexpected way compared to the usual autumnal color palette. The magenta collection is available in a variety of styles, including tote bags, shoulder bags, and wallets, as well as different materials, from suede to smooth leather.

Etta Small Flap Shoulder Bag, $199 (was $275) at Coach Outlet

Courtesy of Coach Outlet

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Suede is a fall staple, whether it’s in the form of accessories, apparel, or footwear. But suede in Coach Outlet’s new magenta color? Now that’s statement-worthy. And paired with the Etta Small Flap Shoulder Bag, it’s an accessory you can wear day and night. Rather than a zippered top, it has a flap design that covers the main compartment, where you can stash away all of your essentials, and it’s secured with a push-lock closure. There’s also an exterior zipper that gives you easy access to small items, like a credit card or cash. With a detachable handle and strap, you can wear it as a shoulder bag or a crossbody bag.

City Mini Tote Bag, $149 at Coach Outlet

Courtesy of Coach Outlet

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Mini tote bags have been trending the last few years, and here’s another you’re going to want to add to your collection. The City Mini Tote Bag measures 6 inches long by 3.5 inches wide by 5.5 inches high, offering that tote bag look with enough space for smaller items, like a hairbrush, a smaller phone, and a wallet. It comes in smooth leather for a sleek and modern vibe, and it’s versatile, with a sewn-on handle and a detachable strap that you can adjust to wear on your shoulder or across your body.

The mini tote is available in Blue Jay, another vibrant hue. You can also get the magenta color in a larger size with the Medium City Tote Bag.

Snap Wallet, $69 (was $150) at Coach Outlet

Courtesy of Coach Outlet

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Coach Outlet’s Snap Wallet comes in not just magenta but also in a soft suede material. It’s the perfect little accessory to take on the go or throw in one of your go-to bags. With a full-length bill compartment, you can carry around cash with ease, and it has a zippered pocket to put coins in. It also has three credit card slots and an ID window, along with a snap closure to keep everything contained. 

Skip the usual fall colorways, and opt for one of Coach Outlet’s many offerings in its new magenta collection. 

Shop more Coach Outlet

Emeilia Shoulder Bag, $179 (was $225) at Coach Outlet

Soft Tabby Shoulder Bag 20, $375 at Coach Outlet

Card Case With Charms, $59 (was $75) at Coach Outlet

Bron Breakker and Sol Ruca have qualified for WWE Money in the Bank on October 10 in New Orleans. Here are the qualifiers, the card and what is left.

TheStreet aims to feature only the best products and services. If you buy something via one of our links, we may earn a commission.

Why we love this deal

When redecorating a room, it’s usually the most expensive pieces, like the living room couches or dining table set, that will have the biggest impact on the space. However, in the bedroom, there’s a much more affordable alternative. All it takes to transform a bedroom is a single bedspread and matching pillow shams, which can brighten up the space while adding a sense of coziness. If you want to try this experiment out for yourself, the Wispy Floral 3-Piece Comforter Set at Macy’s is absolutely adorable, and it’s on sale for under $25. 

The Macy’s Wispy Floral 3-Piece Comforter Set is a perfect bedding selection as we transition from summer to winter. Weather always gets wacky around this time, with a mix of hot and cold temperatures, and this medium-weight comforter that comes with two matching pillow shams has just the right amount of warmth for year-round use. With a limited-time deal taking 70% off its regular price of $80, this bedding set is now available for just $24. This is an exceptional deal for a comforter set, but it’s an even better value given the bedding is also reversible, providing multiple looks in one package.

Wispy Floral 3-Piece Comforter Set, $24 (was $80) at Macy’s

Courtesy of Macy’s

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Why do shoppers love it?

One side of this reversible comforter set features a beautiful garden-inspired print with leafy green branches and colorful flowers in pops of coral, blue, and yellow. It’s a classic floral pattern that can elevate the space. On the opposite side, you’ll find a green striped print that looks simply elegant. Since the comforter and shams are both crafted with this reversible design, you can actually get up to four different looks if you mix and match the pillow shams. You could easily throw on a blanket in the winter for even more options.

Related: Macy’s has a $400 14-piece comforter set with matching sheets for 70% off

The majority of shoppers have given this plush comforter set a five-star rating, with many highlighting that the material is “soft.” The bedding is made with 100% polyester, and the comforter has extra filling for a fluffy and cuddly feel that’s ideal for wrapping up in. As a bonus, the fabric is machine washable, so when you need to give it a refresh, you can just throw it in with the laundry. One reviewer, who called the bedding “pretty and comfortable,” gave their experience, writing, “I think the set is very nice — it brightens up my bedroom.”

Details to know 

Sizes available: All three sizes, twin XL, full/queen, and king, are on sale for $24.

Pieces in set: A comforter and matching pillow shams.

Warmth level: Medium warmth.

Material: 100% Polyester.

Is it machine washable?: Yes.

If you like the $24 price point of this three-piece comforter set, but would prefer a different color scheme or pattern for your bedroom, Macy’s has several other options with similar discounts. We’ve listed our favorite for you to check out below.

Shop more deals

Francesca 3-Piece Comforter Set, $24 (was $80) at Macy’s

Jasmine 3-Piece Comforter Set, $24 (was $80) at Macy’s

Penelope 3-Piece Comforter Set, $24 (was $80) at Macy’s

Upgrade your bedroom with the Wispy Floral 3-Piece Comforter Set while it’s on sale for just $24 at Macy’s. When sizes sell out, they’ll be gone for good, so don’t miss your chance to save.

IBM is using AI at the US Open to transform the fan experience, analyze billions of data points and showcase how sports can become a powerful testing ground for AI technology.

The exact prompts for finding where AI can create revenue, scale your output and protect the work that still needs you.