Vermont Business Magazine In response to Blue Cross Blue Shield of Vermont’s 8.4 percent rate increase request for their 2016 Vermont Health Connect health insurance plans (now reduced to 7.2 percent), the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign released an opposing statement (see below.)Supporters of the campaign stated their case inMontpelier Wednesday by calling on the Green Mountain Care Board to reject the rate hikes and resume its role in guiding Vermont to a universal, publiclyfinanced healthcare system. MVP Health Carehas requested an annual rate increase of 3.0 percent.The Green Mountain Care Board will decide on the rate requests by August 13.
BCBSVT in its filing said the rate increase would be 5.3 percent if not for Affordable Care Act mandates. It said the rest of the increase essentially is to cover the expected increase of health care costs, plus 1 percent to maintain its required reserve fund.
Governor Shumlin, citing rapidly rising costs of a single-payer plan and the possible deleterious impact on the state's economy, withdrew his support for it late last year, effectively killing the plan for now. He had based much of his health care restructuring around a single-payer system starting in 2017 and was its most important champion.
The governor said last December, "I am not going undermine the hope of achieving critically important health care reforms for this state by pushing prematurely for single payer when it is not the right time for Vermont. In my judgment, now is not the right time to ask our legislature to take the step of passing a financing plan for Green Mountain Care.”
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Blue Cross Blue Shield Seeks 7.2 Percent Premium Increase
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HCHR Statement:
“Private insurance is already too expensive under the Affordable Care Act (ACA) and Vermont Health Connect, and still we are not getting the care that we need. Insurance companies that make tremendous surpluses and pay their executives high salaries are asking for more of our money at a rate that surely exceeds any pay raises that we will receive, serving as another indicator that we must move beyond the ACA to a universal, publicly financed healthcare system without the need for insurance companies.
BCBS is a non-profit company set up by Vermont law with the express purpose of lowering the cost of health services to the people of Vermont. As such, it is exempt from paying taxes and will receive a tax break of over $15 million this year. Yet BCBS is unable and unwilling to ensure that all Vermont residents can get the healthcare they need. That’s why the Healthcare is a Human Right campaign has proposed to dissolve BCBS and turn its assets over to a new public corporation that can operate Green Mountain Care as a true public good that belongs to all of us. At this point, we urge the GMCB to consider the obligation BCBS has under the law, and to ask BCBS to work harder to meet this obligation.
It is unfair that one in five people are struggling with medical bills, while ten BCBSVT executives are paid up to half a million dollars each. [5] It is inequitable that low-income people pay proportionally more for healthcare than the wealthy, while making do with low-value insurance plans. Rising inequality in Vermont is directly linked to how the private insurance system works, and why we need to change this.
Inequality is growing, and so is healthcare spending, and this will continue unless the GMCB acts. We can no longer afford to protect and perpetuate a healthcare system that is both wasteful and unjust. We call on the GMCB to reject these rate increases, and to resume its role of guiding us to a universal, publicly financed healthcare system. Healthcare is a public good, not for private profits.”
HCHRNOTES
Currently both major insurance providers offering health insurance on the Vermont Health Connect have filed for rate increases for the 2016. The GMCB is in the process of reviewing these filings. BCBS and Cigna have requested an average premium price increase of 8.4% and 3.0% increases respectively. Some BCBS plans would increase by up to 14.3%. http://ratereview.vermont.gov/rate_review/BCVT-130082559
In 2014 BCBS requested a 9.8% increase for its 2015 plans; GMCB approved 7.7%:
http://ratereview.vermont.gov/rate_review/BCVT-129572217
See bill H.475, which was introduced in 2015 with the support of the HCHR campaign: http://legislature.vermont.gov/assets/Documents/2016/Docs/BILLS/H-0475/H-0475%20As%20Introduced.pdf
BCBS 2014 salaries and bonuses: http://www.dfr.vermont.gov/sites/default/files/BCBSVT-Act-150-filing.pdf
Source:HCHR 7.28.2015