Could the COVID-19 Pandemic Affect the 2021 Marketplace?

A new report from the Kaiser Family Foundation looks at the early filings by health insurers with state regulators about premiums for the 2021 plan year. The analysis by Kaiser looked at 10 states plus DC where data was available. Some insurance companies indicated that COVID-19 played little to no effect on premiums for 2021 while some indicated that premiums could rise as much as 8% as a result of the pandemic. It should be noted that this is early in the process and insurance premiums still have yet to be set, so the continuing pandemic could still be a factor in these premiums.