Don’t just renew
Kaiser Permanente small business plans in California: 2027 rates are up 5.6%
If your company has Kaiser Permanente in California, plan on paying about 6% more when you renew in 2027. That’s the smallest increase Kaiser has filed for small businesses since 2022, and it’s about half of Anthem’s January increase.
The short version
- Kaiser’s average increase for California small business plans in 2027 is 5.6%, and it applies all year, not just in January.
- Its standard HMO plans are going up 5.6% on average, and its high-deductible plans 5.0%.
- After renewal, Kaiser’s small business plans average about $696 a month for each person covered.
- Almost all of the increase is the expected rise in the cost of care. Kaiser’s filing projects a small loss on these plans in 2027.
How much is Kaiser Permanente raising small business rates?
Kaiser files its small business rates once a year with California’s Department of Managed Health Care (DMHC), the state agency that oversees health plans. Most insurers file every quarter, but Kaiser sets one set of rates in January, and every company that renews during 2027 pays those rates for its next 12 months. In California, a small business plan covers a company with 1 to 100 employees. Kaiser’s 2027 filing covers about 639,000 people at about 42,800 companies.
| Rate year | Kaiser Permanente |
|---|---|
| 2022 | 1.9% |
| 2023 | 6.6% |
| 2024 | 9.1% |
| 2025 | 7.0% |
| 2026 | 6.9% |
| 2027 | 5.6% |
Source: DMHC rate filings for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan’s non-grandfathered small group HMO plans, checked November 3, 2026. See the 2027 filing.
The 2027 number is what Kaiser filed. The state hasn’t posted a final number yet, but for 2022 through 2026 the final number matched the filing. The federal rate review site lists the same filing at 5.5%.
These figures are for Kaiser Foundation Health Plan, the company behind Kaiser’s HMOs. Older plans that started before 2014 and kept their original benefits, called grandfathered plans, are filed separately and are going up 6.8% in 2027.
What Kaiser Permanente small business plans cost in 2027
Kaiser’s filing also shows the average monthly premium after renewal, per person covered. That counts employees and any family members on the plan, and it’s the full premium before you split it with your employees.
| Plan type | Average increase | Average monthly premium per person |
|---|---|---|
| HMO | 5.6% | $709 |
| High-deductible HMO | 5.0% | $585 |
| All plans | 5.5% | $696 |
Source: rate filing workbook attached to Kaiser’s 2027 DMHC filing. The workbook’s own average comes to 5.5%, and the state lists the filing at 5.6%. Premiums are averages across ages and regions.
Kaiser’s plans are HMOs. Your employees get care from Kaiser’s own doctors and hospitals, and they usually need a referral to see a specialist. A high-deductible plan has a lower premium and a higher deductible, and it can come with a health savings account (HSA). About 1 in 10 people on Kaiser’s small business plans are in one.
Your own increase depends on your plan, your employees’ ages, and where your company is located. Kaiser’s actuarial memo shows individual plans going up anywhere from 1.4% to 8.3%. Employees still move up an age band as they get older, and that’s on top of these numbers.
Why is Kaiser Permanente raising rates?
Nearly all of the increase is the rising cost of care. Kaiser’s filing splits the change into parts. Cost growth adds 5.5 points. Administrative costs add 0.5 points, and risk adjustment, a federal program that moves money between insurers based on how healthy their members are, adds 0.4 points. A higher profit target adds 0.3 points. Plan design changes take 1.2 points off.
The filing projects costs rising about 6.7% a year. Prescription drugs are climbing fastest, about 8.4% a year, though they’re only about 9% of the cost of care for Kaiser’s small business members. Hospitals are a bigger piece: Kaiser’s inpatient hospital costs ran about 2.8 times what Medicare pays for the same care, and outpatient costs about 2.5 times.
Kaiser runs its own hospitals and medical groups, so it pays its doctors a set amount per member instead of a fee for each visit. Even with the profit target going up, Kaiser’s actuarial memo expects a margin of -0.4% on these plans in 2027, a small loss. The rates are built from the claims of all of Kaiser’s small business members in 2025, about 7.5 million months of coverage.
How Kaiser Permanente compares with other California insurers
Kaiser’s increase is the lowest of the big California plans’ January filings.
| Plan | Filed increase |
|---|---|
| UHC of California | 22.6% |
| UnitedHealthcare Benefits Plan of California | 21.0% |
| Health Net (leaving the employer market) | 14.8% |
| Blue Shield of California | 13.9% |
| Anthem Blue Cross | 10.9% |
| Aetna Health of California | 7.6% |
| Kaiser Permanente | 5.6% |
Source: DMHC rate filings, checked November 3, 2026. Kaiser’s figure is for non-grandfathered plans. Plans regulated by the California Department of Insurance aren’t in this data.
Most of the others set new rates every quarter, so their January number can change by spring. Kaiser’s 5.6% holds for the whole year. We’ve also written up the 2027 rates for Anthem Blue Cross, Blue Shield of California, and UnitedHealthcare. Across the country, the median small business increase insurers asked for in 2027 is 14%, according to KFF.
What to do before you renew
- Find your renewal notice and check the rate and the date on it. Kaiser’s 2027 rates apply whenever in the year you renew.
- Check whether you’re on a standard HMO or a high-deductible plan. Kaiser’s high-deductible plans cost about $124 less per person each month on average.
- Look at where your employees actually get care. With an HMO, they’ll need Kaiser’s doctors and hospitals close to where they live and work.
- Get a second opinion before you sign. An independent employee benefits advisor, often called a benefits broker, can price your plan against other insurers and other ways to fund coverage, and Kaiser may still come out ahead.
Don’t Just Renew is not associated with, endorsed by, or sponsored by Kaiser Permanente or Kaiser Foundation Health Plan. Kaiser Permanente is a trademark of its owner, and we use the name only to report public rate data. This article is general information, not insurance advice. Figures are current as of November 3, 2026.