Pressure is building to improve health insurance premium regulation

Calls are increasing from advocates, legislators and public officials to better regulate health insurance rates in CT. A bill being heard today in the Insurance and Real Estate Committee, SB-194 An Act Concerning Rate Approvals for Individual Health Insurance Policies, would tighten the CT Insurance Dept. procedure for approving insurers’ proposed rate hikes. A recent report by the Office of Legislative Research found that the Dept. rarely denies insurer requests. The US Dept. of Health and Human Services released a report last week highlighting CT among states with very large insurer rate requests and predicts 20 to 40% rate increases into the future. The President’s recent health reform plan proposes to regulate premiums at the federal level rather than the states.
Ellen Andrews