20 Percent Premium Increases – The New Normal
This week I came across an article in the Hartford Courant written by Matthew Sturderant. The gist of the article centered on how health insurers are asking for immediate rate increases of more than 20 percent in Connecticut for certain health plans. The rate increases still need to be approved by the state for the individual health insurance market, but what we see happening in Connecticut will be occurring throughout the United States. How each state will handle this is yet to be seen but bottom line, the new normal is in progress.
Connecticut Attorney General Richard Blumenthal has weighed in on the increases when he said, "These outrageous requests demonstrate the need for stronger Department of Insurance authority to block unjustified health insurance premium increases, as I strongly advocated in the last session. My proposed bill would have allowed the commissioner to consider insurer profitability, required insurers to inform customers of rate requests and mandated an up or down ruling on all increases."
As I mentioned in my previous posts, these increases may be unjustified and outrageous but for the sake of argument, what if these increase ARE justified. What makes them justified? The higher charges being submitted by the healthcare delivery system. With that said, has there been any government official sending out “threats” for outlandish charges? Most of the discussion today is on the insurance companies rate increases, salaries of the insurance companies executives and how they are the problem. Again, there may be justification in these arguments but do not lose sight that there are more people involved in this equation.
In my next post I will share some of the interesting findings of the recent healthcare salary survey. As the old saying goes, it takes two to tango.