Insurance regulators in Connecticut are to hold a public hearing on Monday to review the double digit rate hikes requested for 2023 by the health insurers participating in the state’s Obamacare exchange.
Some elected officials, including U.S. Senator Richard Blumenthal, have urged regulators to reject the hikes.
The state insurance commissioner should dismiss the hikes because the Inflation Reduction Act passed by Congress last week continues a federal subsidy on Obamacare health insurance premiums for another three years, said Blumenthal. And that negates the reason for the rate hikes.
“The insurance department ought to simply say, no! We are not dummies. We are not fools. We know what you are doing. On behalf of consumers we say no,” he said.
“They were betting on the Affordable Care Act to go away and they are wrong. Because Senator Blumenthal and Senator Murphy voted last week as part of the Inflation Reduction Act to extend support for the Affordable Care Act,” said state Senator Matt Lesser, co-chair of the Insurance and Real Estate Committee.
Aetna, ConnectiCare, Oxford/UnitedHealthCare and Anthem have requested to increase the cost of individual health plans on Access Health CT, the state’s health insurance exchange, by an average of 20% next year.
The insurance department is expected to issue a decision in September.
