UPDATE: Rate review results – What happened?

By Rosana G. Ferraro |

The Connecticut Insurance Department announced their decisions on 2019 health insurance rates on September 13th, after an online public comment period and informational hearing.  The Foundation testified at the informational hearing, focusing on how challenging high health care costs are for regular people.

Short story – surprisingly, approved rates were much lower than requested by insurers for the individual and small group market.

That a small bit of good news in a larger bad news landscape, though.  Rates have been going up, and went up dramatically last year, due to changes made at the federal level and uncertainty fueled by Washington, DC.  These year over year increases have pushed health insurance out of reach for some families.

While these lower rate approvals are a promising development, we stand by our testimony that health care affordability needs to be front and center in our discussions about solving the many health care problems of our state.

Article: Insurance Department approves on average 3 percent rate hikes for 2019 plans (CT Mirror, 9/13/2018)

Learn more: What is rate review and why does it matter to you?