Does your state even care what you pay for health insurance?
After watching health insurance rates balloon in the last several years, you might wonder who has the consumer's back.
States are largely responsible for overseeing how much health insurance companies charge for coverage, but they're all over the map in terms of how hard they scrutinize proposed premiums.
Some states did comprehensive rate reviews last year, while others took only a cursory look at rate filings, according to a new report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Some states rejected many of the proposed hikes. Others, lacking the authority to even disapprove rates, let all premium increases go through.
More than three-quarters of U.S. consumers who purchased their own insurance faced premium hikes last year, with the average increase hitting 20%, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation survey. Premiums for employer-sponsored coverage have more than doubled in the last 10 years, another Kaiser survey says.
Consumer advocates say strong rate regulation is essential for health care reform to work, especially considering that the Affordable Care Act will require almost everyone to purchase health insurance in 2014 and the government will provide subsidies for low-income people.
"If some of the reforms bring down health care costs [as they're intended to do], we need rate regulation to make sure savings are passed on to consumers," says Anthony Wright, executive director of Health Access California, a statewide consumer advocacy group.
The Affordable Care Act included $250 million for states to beef up their rate-review procedures. So far the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded $46 million of that money in grants to 45 states and the District of Columbia.
As of Sept. 1, insurers that request double-digit rate increases must submit the request to state or federal reviewers. Federal reviews will take place in cases where states lack the authority or resources to review rates.
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After watching health insurance rates balloon in the last several years, you might wonder who has the consumer's back. States are largely responsible for overseeing how much health insurance companies charge for coverage,
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