BREAKING: Bill to Give Health Insurers More Leeway to Raise Rates Passes

SB 1336 just passed through the General Assembly and is headed to the to the Governor's desk for his siganture. 

The good news is that commercial plans (meaning not just the 'non-profit' Blues and HMO's) will actually be subject to review when they want to hike up rates on small businesses. Unfortunately, our legislators missed a golden opportunity to put some real protections in place for small employers in our state. 

The legislation that just passed actually weakens the Insurance Department's authority to review and disapprove rates. It allows insurers to file rate hikes of up to 10% with no review or scrutiny by the Department, and allows rate increases above 10% to take effect without being approved. Requested rate increases and decisions on whether or not a rate hike is going into effect don't even have to be made available to the public. We believe this will result in less accountability and transparency in the rate review process and continue to leave our small employers to face excessive rate hikes year after year. 

Further, this legislation does not give any rights to small businesses; if an employer is hit a 30% rate hike, they have no right to a public hearing--and the Insurance Department can choose whether or not to even accept their objection (set public comment periods are at the Department's discretion). The only party with a right to their day in court via a public hearing are the insurance companies--if their rate hike is denied, and they want to challenge that determination. 

In passing this legislation, the legislature chose to take a "bare minimum" approach rather than working in good faith to put some real protections in place for small businesses. When it comes to the health of Pennsylvania families and small businesses, we should be able to count on our legislators to do more than the bare minimum.