PRESS RELEASE
July 8, 2022 - Hartford, CT
Health Insurance Carriers Seek Massive Increases for 2023; Healthcare Advocate Calls for Scrutiny of High Hospital and Drug Prices Behind These Premium Hikes
I am shocked to learn that the health insurance carriers of Connecticut are seeking premium rate increases of more than 20 percent and in some cases more than 30 percent for next year. These unbelievable hikes will fuel inflation and harm access to any healthcare – let alone affordable healthcare – for many Connecticut families.
These high premium rate requests are driven by one thing: this state’s internationally abnormal hospital and drug prices. The Connecticut Insurance Department has the statutory authority to determine whether or not healthcare premium rate requests are “excessive.” The Office of the Healthcare Advocate believes that any premium rate request based on excessive medical costs is itself by definition excessive. That is why I am calling on the Insurance Department to hold formal administrative hearings – not the informal listening sessions that have been the practice in recent years – including calling specific high-cost providers such as hospitals and pharmaceutical manufacturers to explain and justify the internationally abnormal, inflation-fueling prices underlying these massive rate requests.
The Insurance Department in 2015 committed to hold formal administrative hearings at the request of the Healthcare Advocate on up to four plans when rate requests exceed 10 percent. Today, this office, in partnership with Attorney General Tong and his team, is invoking this authority. OHA will participate as a party intervenor, represented by the Attorney General’s Office. I look forward to working with the Department, the Attorney General, and OHA’s legal team in coming days to determine which plan or plans should be subject to a formal Uniform Administrative Procedures Act hearing process this summer.
Please contact Healthcare Advocate Ted Doolittle at 860-331-2441 or ted.doolittle@ct.gov for further information.
Always in your corner,
Ted Doolittle
Healthcare Advocate, State of Connecticut