Consumers pleaded with Connecticut regulators Wednesday to hold the line on increasingly pricey health insurance as two major insurers pointed to political turmoil in Washington as a major driver of rising costs.
An informational hearing focused on rate proposals filed by Anthem Health Plans and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. for individual plans marketed through Access Health CT, the state-sponsored health insurance exchange. Anthem is seeking a 9.1 percent increase for its individual plans and CBI is requesting a 13 percent increase.
Together, the two carriers cover more than 100,000 people, Insurance Commissioner Katharine Wade said.
Matt McDermott, a representative of Connecticut religious congregations, said affordability is the critical issue.
“The pressure is not just affording the premium, but health care coverage,” he said.
Jennifer Lovett of Crystal Financial Health Agents for America in South Windsor said her clients face escalating costs of 30 percent to 50 percent.
“Each year, I come up here,” she told Wade and other regulators.
Representatives of Anthem Health Plans and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc. said younger and healthier people are exiting the market, leaving insurers to serve older and sicker people with costlier health insurance requirements.
In addition, tax law enacted by the Republican-led Congress and signed by President Donald Trump last year eliminates a penalty required of the uninsured beginning in 2019. That will further skew the market and drive up rates, the insurers said.
Planning and pricing for health plans that comply with the Affordable Care Act, or Obamacare, “has become increasingly difficult,” said Steve Ribeiro, regional vice president of sales for Anthem.
He blamed a shrinking number of participants in the individual market; and a “corresponding increase in the population’s morbidity,” or rate of illness, “and uncertainty around marketplace features.”
Ten health insurers sought rate changes covering about 293,000 customers for next year. The proposed increases continue to rise at rates far faster than inflation, but on average are below last year’s increases.
The proposed average individual rate increase request, released in July by the state Insurance Department, is 12.3 percent and ranges from -10.9 percent to 31 percent. It’s down from an average increase request of 25.5 percent last year.
The proposed average small group rate increase request is 10.2 percent and ranges from -5.0 percent to 21.1 percent. The average increase requested last year was 18.1 percent.
Higher medical costs and rising demand for medical services were cited to back the proposed rate hikes.
Wade also cited uncertainty in Washington resulting from policy changes as a factor in rising rates.
The Insurance Department is conducting actuarial reviews on each filing to determine if they are justified. It will reject, approve or modify the requests, with final rulings expected later in the month.
Open enrollment for the 2019 coverage year begins Nov. 1.
