The two insurers that offer health care plans on the state marketplace want to raise their premiums next year. But neither BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont nor MVP Health Care are requesting average hikes in the double digits. And the increases BlueCross is proposing are the smallest they’ve been in five years.
Regulators and advocates alike say the insurers’ requests are a sign the state's efforts to get Vermont’s spiraling health care costs under control are bearing fruit. But they also emphasized the work ahead. Vermont’s marketplace plans remain, for now, the most expensive in the nation.
Owen Foster, the chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, which will have the final say over rates, called the requests “more reasonable” than in recent years.
“I think anytime we have an increase at our price levels, at this point, it’s difficult for consumers to take,” he said. “But at the same time we are seeing some of the positive impacts of the regulatory and legislative actions taken in the last few years.”
BlueCross is requesting a premium rate increase of 3.1% for small businesses and 5.2% for individuals. MVP Health Care wants to increase premiums by 7.8% for individuals and 9.1% for small businesses.
Just over 28,000 individuals buy health insurance for themselves and their families on the exchange, and thousands more are covered by plans purchased by businesses with fewer than 100 workers.
MVP’s requests are significantly higher than they were last year. But the New York-based insurer’s plans are also much cheaper than those offered by BlueCross BlueShield.
Mike Fisher, Vermont’s chief health care advocate, said he took some comfort in seeing single-digit increase requests across the board.
“I am relieved that proposals aren’t worse,” he said.
For the last year or so, regulators and lawmakers alike have been leaning aggressively on hospitals — particularly the University of Vermont Health network — to bring down prices. Regulators slashed hospital budgets last year, and have issued guidance telling hospitals they expect them to charge private insurers even less next year.
That budget guidance is baked into the rate proposal that BlueCross BlueShield of Vermont put forward this week, according to Ruth Greene, the insurer’s CFO. So too is a drug price cap that state lawmakers enacted last year.
These rates are preliminary and will likely go down. State lawmakers are at work on a measure that would reduce hospital prices for certain health plans, and regulators say that if S.190 makes it into law — as it is expected to — that will help them bring down premiums.
Fisher said he remains concerned about plans on the exchange. Enhanced federal subsidies expired this year, effectively doubling the premium cost for certain Vermonters. In response, thousands of Vermonters dropped their coverage this year.
The Green Mountain Care Board is expected to finalize rates in August, after a public comment period. Fisher encouraged Vermonters to avail themselves of the board’s process to make their voices heard.
“I know people are tired of telling policymakers, decisionmakers, about how high insurance costs affects them, but it really matters,” he said.
