Do you remember when President Obama promised that his Health Care Reform plan would bring down the costs of health care for all Americans? Those of us in Connecticut are wondering how he will explain the latest move by insurers who now want the ability to raise rates by over 20% in 2011.
Aetna asked earlier this summer for an average 24.7 percent increase over last year for small-group HMO plans. State regulators approved an average increase of 18 percent for all of Aetna's small-group plans and 14.2 percent for large-group and middle-market plans, according to Aetna and an initial review of documents provided to The Courant by the state Insurance Department...Somehow, I suspect suddenly health care will return to be a #1 issue in the Fall elections... at least in my home state.
In what might appear to be an oddity, companies are citing a huge range of effects that the health care reform mandates will have on plan prices — from near zero to well over 20 percent...
ConnectiCare is seeking an average 22.2 percent hike for its individual-market HMO plans, according to a filing with state regulators...Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield in Connecticut, by far the largest insurer of Connecticut residents, said in a letter that it expects the federal health reform law to increase rates by as much as 22.9 percent for just a single provision — removing annual spending caps...
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The same thing happened recently in California. The law there is that the insurance companies have to pay out a certain percentage of income in payouts to doctors. (Something like 70%) The company asking for rate increases was complying with the law so there wasn't much the insurance commission could do to stop the rate increase.
This is all a good example of why just insuring more people is not the answer to making health care more affordable. We need new, and perhaps bold, ideas to tackle the run away increase in medical costs.
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