Last Friday, U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) joined a growing chorus of Connecticut officials urging the state’s Insurance Department (CID) to reject requests from state health insurers to increase their insurance premiums by an average of 16% to 18%. If approved, it would mark the second year in a row that premiums for state-offered healthcare plans receive double-digit increases.
“A lot of people in Connecticut simply can’t afford basic necessities, we are now seeing health insurance companies asking for a humongous rate increase,” said Blumenthal. “The bottom line here is that people in Connecticut are paying more and getting less: higher premiums and deductibles, and they’re getting health insurance that covers less of what they need.”
Around 220,000 state residents are covered by state-regulated plans, bought either directly through private carriers or Access Health, the State’s health insurance marketplace. Per the CID, Anthem is requesting an average rate hike of 12.8% on its individual plans, while ConnectiCare Benefits is requesting an average increase of 22.7%. Individual plans offered by these two providers cover 153,390 state residents. ConnecticCare will not offer any plans through Access Health for 2027, and neither will Connecticut Insurance Company, which will be offering new plans. Connecticut Insurance Company covers the fewest residents of any insurer on the list, covering only 3,719 residents.
For small business plans, Anthem is requesting an average increase of 17.4%, while UnitedHealthcare is requesting an average increase of 18.9%. These plans cover an additional 62,908 residents. UnitedHealthcare will only be offering coverage off-exchange in 2027.
Last year, CID approved average health insurance increases of 16.8% for individual plans and 11% for small business plans. Blumenthal called this year’s requested increases “unaffordable, unsustainable, [and] unacceptable.” Earlier this month, Attorney General William Tong spoke out against the proposed increases, calling them “unaffordable, excessive and unacceptable,” and promised to “scrutinize every page of these applications.”
“Year after year, insurers pad these rates with fuzzy math, double-counted costs, and unspported assumptions,” said Tong. “They need to come before the Connecticut Insurance Department prepared to justify every analysis, and they are going to need to explain why they remain utterly unwilling and unable to use their leverage to negotiate with healthcare providers and drive down these runaway healthcare costs.”
State Senators Matt Lesser (D-Middletown) and Jeff Gordon (R-Woodstock) also demanded rejection of the proposals at that time.
Insurers must submit lengthy filings outlining the reasoning behind their requests, which are then reviewed by CID officials, who then choose whether to approve, reject, or modify each request. The CID states that insurers have generally attributed their proposed increases to rising health care costs, such as increased prescription drug costs and demand for medical services, experience adjustments, which account for how much insurers paid out last period versus how much premiums paid in, and the expiration of Enhanced federal subsidies.
Blumenthal argued that these reasons are inadequate.
“Now the insurance company will say we need these rate increases because the cost of health care is rising,” said Blumenthal. “Well, the cost of health care may be rising, but health insurance companies are making huge profits; billions of dollars to their bottom line shows they can afford to go without these rate increases.”
He argued that increased rates could cause state residents to “skip or delay health care,” leading to higher costs in the long run when their conditions require immediate intervention. Blumenthal also said that a “drastic, draconian rate increase” for small-business plans could impact the state’s economy, leading to “fewer jobs [being] available because businesses can’t afford them.”
“We need to make sure that the people of Connecticut can afford preventive health care, and the best way to do that is to lower the cost of insurance,” said Blumenthal.
Blumenthal was joined at the conference by Liz Dupont-Diehl, Associate Director of the CT Citizen Action Group, who argued that “the prices we are charged for health care are too high and make no sense,” and that insurance companies’ increasingly high level of consolidation and integration with healthcare providers is “diverting billions of dollars from our care with little transparency or limits on their self dealing.”
Dupont-Diehl highlighted the fact that 80% of the country’s prescription drug claims are processed through three pharmacy benefit managers, CVS Caremark, Express Scripts, and OptumRx. Express Scripts and OptumRx are subsidiaries of Cigna and UnitedHealth, respectively, meaning they can effectively set their own prices for prescription medications. She said the high-level of market consolidation in healthcare and health insurance is “like the 21st century Standard Oil.”
Blumenthal said he would be writing a letter to Josh Hershman, the state’s Insurance Commissioner, telling him he “must say no,” and that he “will oppose these kinds of rate increases across the country” with Congressional colleagues in D.C. He urged state residents to share their thoughts with the CID directly during the state’s public comment period.
“It’s not complicated or difficult to say no, and that’s what the insurance commissioner should do,” said Blumenthal.
CID will host a public meeting with state insurers in August, where members of the public will be allowed to submit comments and testimony, before making a final decision on the filings in September. Per the CID’s rate filings timeline, final rates and plans will be posted on Access Health “at least two weeks before the beginning of open enrollment,” on November 1st.
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