Health insurance commissioner Christopher Koller yesterday approved a 7 percent rate hike for Blue Cross Blue Shield direct-pay plans—a reduction of both the original 10.2 percent request and the 9.5 percent increase agreed to by the attorney general and Blue Cross last week.
While I am encouraged that the commissioner further lowered the rate hike to address affordability issues, the approved 7 percent hike will still be a tremendous financial burden for struggling Rhode Islanders. From my press release:
“This rate hike will severely impact the self-employed, small business owners, and individuals who have no access to insurance through their employers or who have lost their jobs. I fear many will see health insurance becoming simply too expensive—and they will have nowhere else to turn.
“The continuing unaffordable and unsustainable health insurance rate increase requests will only multiply if we do not address the underlying escalating costs of health care. Even as we oppose these increases, we must at the same time concentrate aggressively on controlling the costs of health care and make it the focus of our implementation of health care reform in Rhode Island.
“I am committed to working with all stakeholders to bend the cost curve downward. This month I will intensify the public effort, convened with the Rhode Island Foundation, with Making It Work: Health Reform in Rhode Island, that will result in a plan to responsibly bring down the costs of health care. Rhode Islanders deserve a system that delivers high quality of care at a price they can afford.”
Stay tuned for more details about the Making It Work program on health care reform. This series of forums will bring experts to Rhode Island from around the region and the nation to discuss cutting-edge solutions to delivering high quality health care at lower costs. We'll publish the dates and speakers on the blog in the next few weeks.