Health Insurers’ Savings During Pandemic May Be Fleeting

Employers and insurers so far are coming out ahead in terms of the health-care costs they are incurring during the Covid-19 pandemic, but they may face sharply higher costs down the road, health-care analysts say.

After an initial spate of dire warnings of huge costs related to the pandemic, first quarter earnings calls revealed that insurers did well. That’s because they saw lower claims costs as patient visits and procedures were canceled to reserve capacity for Covid-19 treatment and out of fear that in-person contact at medical facilities could spread the disease.

Analysts are struggling to foresee whether insurers and ...