Although the next open enrollment period doesn't begin until November, the Obama administration and state insurance directors are now asking for next year's rates.

With health insurance companies reporting first quarter earnings beginning this week, consumers will be able to see if their premiums will rise (and by how much) in 2015. Insurance companies, however, are already asking for unknown rate hikes for 2015 despite not knowing how many new customers they will get 2014.

It all depends on the demographics of the new customers. If insurers get more young and healthy new customers, rates won't go up much, but because of technical difficulties on the healthcare.gov website, insurers are unable to predict what kind of new customers they will gain. The Obama administration allowed almost 500,000 to enroll after the March 31 deadline. Many of those who met the March 31 deadline did so at the last minute. More than 2 million Americans signed up in the last two weeks of the six-month open enrollment period.

The number of successful enrollees is impressive. U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said over 7.5 million people signed up for health insurance under the Affordable Care Act. She expects that number to rise.

WellPoint Inc., parent company to Anthem Blue Cross, predicts "double-digit-plus" rate increases on policies across the country. The company believes government payments to insurers will be reduced in 2015, thus raising rates.

If rates do indeed make a double digit increase, young and healthy people are likely to forgo signing up. Right now, the penalty for not having health insurance is as low as $95, and many young people would rather pay that fee than a monthly premium of close to $100.

While young and healthy people may try to dodge signing up for health care, older, sicker individuals will probably stick with it, no matter the price.

"Already you hear that people aren't signing up because it's too expensive," Stephen Zaharuk of Moody's Investors said. "If next year there's a double-digit increase, there's going to be more people who say they can't afford it anymore, who are the ones who need it least. The sicker population tends to stay with you." 

The next step for insurers is filing their rate proposals with state officials. They'll do that this spring.