As many residents worry about the price of necessities, Connecticut insurers are proposing double-digit rate increases for state-regulated health plans next year. Carriers are seeking a 16.2% average rate increase for individual policies and 17.8% for small group plans.
What to Know About the Proposed Rate Hikes
The Connecticut Insurance Department annually reviews requests by insurance companies to raise or lower rates on health coverage. Department leaders can choose to approve the full requested increases, reject them or amend them. State officials must ensure the requests are not excessive, inadequate or unfairly discriminatory.
Two carriers, Anthem Health Plans and ConnectiCare Benefits Inc., are selling policies through Access Health CT, the state’s insurance exchange where anyone can purchase a healthcare plan. Anthem asked for an average rate hike of 12.8% on individual plans that cover 103,176 people — with changes ranging from a decrease of 3.4% to an increase of 13.3%, depending on the policy.
Residents can post comments online by clicking “select” under each rate request listed on the insurance department’s website or submit them by mail to the Connecticut Insurance Department at P.O. Box 816, Hartford, CT 06142-0816. A public hearing is planned for August, though a date has not yet been announced.
Original reporting: The Connecticut Mirror — read the source article.
