State Approves Health Insurance Premium Increases

The Connecticut Insurance Department has approved health insurance premium rate increases for both off and on-exchange plans in the individual and small group markets.

The increases translate to an average 5.6% increase in the individual market, and an average 6.7% increase in the small group market.

Department officials said the increases were justified due to both the increasing cost of prescription drugs and medical services.

In a statement, the agency said “[m]edical and prescription drug trends which reflect rising healthcare costs including hospital inpatient and outpatient and prescription drug costs are among the major factors contributing to the approved rates. These factors continue to outpace the trend in professional provider units costs.”

Healthcare Trends

The department used the following trends to justify the increases:

• Medical: 8.9%
• Prescription: 10%-11%
• Unit costs: 65% of trend increase
• Utilization: 35% of trend increase
• Hospital inpatient/outpatient and prescription rate of increase: three-times professional services
• Hospital inpatient/outpatient increase: 10% annually

Costs

Reducing the cost of medical services and prescription drugs continues to be a focus for CBIA moving into the 2022 legislative session.

On Sept. 20, CBIA is hosting a webinar with the Office of Health Strategy to update member companies on the progress of the Cost Growth and Quality Benchmarking program.

The program is critical to exposing the major cost drivers of healthcare costs, and incentivizing payers and providers to meet annual rate-of growth benchmarks.

Additionally, CBIA was successful last legislative session in defeating a $50 million health insurance tax that would have been absorbed by private commercial plans throughout the state. 

Open enrollment for the 2022 coverage year begins Nov. 1, 2021.

On-Exchange: Small Group Market

Company	Approved Average	Approved Average Range	Covered Lives
Anthem Health Plans	2.9%	-3.55% to 13.97%	25,529
CCare Benefits Inc.	10.3%	4.5% to 15.1%	1,786

Off-Exchange: Small Group Market

Company	Approved Average	Approved Average Range	Covered Lives
Aetna Life Insurance Company	0%	0%	149
CTCare Inc.	7.5%	4.2% to 10.8%	295
CTCare Insurance Co.	3.5%	1% to 6.5%	17,904
Harvard Pilgrim Health Care Inc.	8.4%	5.1% to 9.2%	4,413
HPHC Insurance Company, Inc.	7.1%	2.5% to 9.1%	4,458
Oxford Health Plans (CT), Inc.	9.9%	7.1% to 17.5%	3,393
Oxford Health Insurance, Inc.	10.1%	4% to 16.2%	47,025
UnitedHealthcare Insurance Co.	8.7%	5.7% to 13.8%	1,706

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For more information, contact CBIA’s Wyatt Bosworth (860.244.1155) | @WyattBosworthCT