Archived 2021 Health Insurance Rate Filings

The Pennsylvania Insurance Department (the Department) reviews health insurance rates to ensure that the plans available to consumers are priced appropriately -- that is, they are neither excessive (too high) nor inadequate (too low) -- and are not unfairly discriminatory.  At the beginning of this calendar year, insurers were already developing their Plan Year (PY) 2021 rates based on 2019 claims and membership enrollment experience. 

In March, the COVID-19 pandemic struck.  The COVID-19 pandemic has impacted consumers, businesses, health insurers, health care providers and the economy.  It will also impact health insurance rates for PY 2021.  However, the COVID-19 situation is changing rapidly, and more information comes out every day. More time will allow for the most up-to-date information and therefore more accurate assumptions about the impact on 2021 rates.

Because of this, the Department is developing a thoughtful approach to incorporate potential COVID-19-related impacts into the PY 2021 rates. This approach means that insurers' initial rate filings submitted to the Department in May will not include COVID-19-related impacts.  Instead, it will allow health insurers additional time to analyze emerging data during the early summer. Then, in July, the Department will receive revisions to the rate filings that reflect the most up to date COVID-19-related impacts.  This process, while different than in prior years, provides for a consistent approach for all the insurers, while allowing the time needed to most accurately account for COVID-19-related impacts. 

Because the initial rates filed in May will not include COVID-19 assumptions and therefore will not paint a complete picture of 2021 rates, the Department will first release rate information publicly once insurers have submitted proposed rate filings inclusive of those COVID-19 assumptions. It is currently anticipated that rates will be made public in or near early August. At that time, the Department anticipates the usual transparent process, including the opportunity for public comment on each filing as well as making available county level data as has been provided in prior years.

The Department recognizes the need for health insurance rate stability, affordability, and availability. It is the Department's goal to approve rates that best reflect future health care costs, while maintaining a health insurance market that is stable and competitive.  

Timeline:

• May 19, 2020
  
• Initial filings without COVID assumptions
• July 16, 2020
  
• Filings with COVID assumptions
• August 7, 2020
  
• Public release