Ranked 9 of 15 states · median $765/mo · CMS PY2026
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A 40-year-old painter in Kansas pays a median $765/month for a Silver plan before subsidies — 9th of 15 on cost. The cheapest plan in the state is $565 from Oscar in Anderson. On highest out-of-pocket maximum, Kansas ranks 5 of 15 for this occupation.
For work with real injury exposure the premium is the wrong headline number. What decides a bad year is the annual out-of-pocket maximum — the ceiling you stop paying at. A fall, a fracture, an imaging series and a course of physical therapy will reach that ceiling on any metal tier, so the states below are ordered by worst-case exposure.
Occupational context: Solvent and VOC inhalation; ladder falls; shoulder strain.
None of that changes your price. ACA plans in Kansas are community rated — premium varies by age, ZIP code, tobacco use and household size only. Your occupation cannot be used to rate you, decline you, or exclude a condition. What it changes is which plan design is the right bet.
Premium is set by rating area, so a painter in one Kansas county can pay materially more than one an hour away. Six counties from across the state, cheapest Silver plan for a 40-year-old:
| County | Cheapest Silver @40 | Issuer | Deductible | Carriers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Sedgwick | $696 | Ambetter from Sunflower | $6,000 | 2 |
| Marshall | $698 | UnitedHealthcare | $4,000 | 3 |
| Neosho | $719 | Ambetter from Sunflower | $6,000 | 2 |
| Pratt | $739 | Ambetter from Sunflower | $6,000 | 2 |
| Graham | $746 | Ambetter from Sunflower | $6,000 | 2 |
| Phillips | $746 | Ambetter from Sunflower | $6,000 | 2 |
The spread across just these six is $50/month — $599 a year for the same metal tier. Statewide the range runs $565 to $979. Coverage by County publishes all 105 Kansas counties individually.
| Kansas — worst-case exposure | 2026 |
|---|---|
| Lowest annual out-of-pocket maximum | $5,900 |
| Highest annual out-of-pocket maximum | $10,600 |
| Cheapest Gold plan @40 | $608 — Oscar |
| Gold deductible | $2,000 |
| Cheapest Silver @40 | $565 — Oscar |
| Cheapest Silver @50 | $790 |
For a painter, the gap between $5,900 and $10,600 in annual out-of-pocket maximum is worth more than any premium difference on this page. One serious injury reaches that ceiling regardless of which plan you picked.
Source: CMS Plan Year 2026 Qualified Health Plan Landscape file. 3,058 plan records across 105 Kansas counties. Full-price filed rates before premium tax credits — verify at enrollment.
Cheaper for the same coverage: Michigan ($708), South Dakota ($725), Oklahoma ($731). More expensive: Florida ($789), Utah ($805), Texas ($807).
Side-by-side: Kansas vs South Dakota · Kansas vs Oklahoma · Kansas vs Florida · Kansas vs Utah
This only matters if you can actually choose — you buy in the state where you live, not where you work. If you are a painter who moved this year, that move is a qualifying life event and opens a special enrollment period.
Deduction categories that generally fit this trade: Sprayers, ladders, paint, van, liability insurance. Note the ordering problem with health premiums: the §162(l) deduction lowers your AGI, and your AGI is what sets your premium tax credit, so the two calculate against each other. That is a CPA conversation and worth having before you enroll, not after.
If your household income is above the subsidy range, ACA is not automatically the answer. There are other categories of coverage that may fit, and they work very differently. That is a conversation, not a web page.
The cheapest Silver plan for a 40-year-old in Kansas is $565 per month from Oscar, with a state median of $765. Both figures are full price before premium tax credits; most buyers pay less after subsidies.
No. Kansas exchange plans are guaranteed issue and community rated, so a painter pays exactly what anyone else of the same age in the same ZIP pays. Occupation is not on the application as a rating factor.
No. Only EPO plans were filed for 2026.
Kansas ranks 9 of 15 states covered here, at a median $765 per month. Indiana is cheapest at $558 and Nebraska is most expensive at $875.
Below the cliff. At this income a single-person household remains eligible for a premium tax credit in 2026.
This occupation is below the cliff in all 21 states reported.
What this figure is. It is the median annual wage BLS reports for Painters, Construction and Maintenance (SOC 47-2141) in Kansas. BLS surveys wage and salary workers and excludes the self-employed, so it is a benchmark for the occupation in this state — not the income of a self-employed painter. Premium tax credit eligibility is set by household modified adjusted gross income and household size, not by occupation, so treat this as a reference point rather than a determination of what you qualify for.
Why the cliff is back. The enhanced premium tax credits expired on 31 December 2025. For plan year 2026 the 400% FPL limit applies again, so household income above $62,600 ends premium tax credit eligibility outright.
This page compares states. For Kansas specifically — county-by-county carriers, plan data and enrollment help — I publish that on Coverage by County, including a page written for Painters in Kansas and a blog covering deductibles, subsidies and special enrollment.
Right now 6 carriers file plans across the 105 counties of Kansas. Participation is reset annually, which is why Painters should check the roster in November rather than assume this year’s options carry over.
On price the only honest number today is national: the Peterson-KFF read of 2027 filings puts the median proposed rise near 15%, spanning −1% to 54%. Final Kansas rates are not approved, so any precise 2027 figure quoted for this state is guesswork.
Enrollment opens November 1, 2026. Treat December 15 as the deadline: it guarantees January 1 cover on every marketplace, Kansas included. Conflicting end dates get quoted because a 2025 rule shortened the window and a court vacated it in June 2026, appeal pending — enrol by the 15th and the argument is irrelevant to you.
There is still no PPO on the Kansas marketplace — not in any of its 105 counties. Every plan is an HMO, EPO or POS, which for a painter working across a wide area is the binding constraint, not price.
Because Kansas sells no PPO in any of its 105 counties, the thing that will decide your 2027 experience is which network your providers sit in — and that is far easier to check now than during the rush.
Give me a ZIP and I will tell you three things:
Two Painters on opposite sides of Kansas can be quoted very different premiums for the same plan. Your ZIP is what decides it.