Maryland Health Insurers Seek Double-Digit Rate Hikes

Maryland health insurers on Monday requested rate hikes on Obamacare plans averaging 30 percent, signaling consumers could be in for another round of sticker shock next year.

CareFirst Blue Cross Blue Shield is seeking a 18.5 percent increase on the HMO plan that covers the lion's share of its members, and a whopping 91 percent increase for one of its PPO plans.

Kaiser Permanente sought an increase of about 37 percent.

Proposed rate hikes, which must be reviewed by regulators and could be slashed before open enrollment begins Nov. 1, averaged 30.2 percent across all plans being offered in 2019.

Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan, a Republican, said the requested hikes underscore the need to enact the reinsurance program that Annapolis lawmakers approved earlier this year. The program, which is awaiting federal approval, frees up money to subsidize extra-pricey customers, so everyone else can pay less.

"Simply put, Marylanders should not have to choose between buying groceries and paying for health insurance," Mr. Hogan said. "We are working with our federal partners to expedite approval for Maryland's reinsurance waiver, and we continue to call for action at the federal level to fix our broken health insurance system," he said.

More broadly, the rate requests suggest ongoing turbulence in the Obamacare markets. Insurers in Virginia also requested double-digit rate hikes on Friday.

CareFirst CEO Chet Burrell said he was "deeply concerned that individual rates must rise as steeply as those filed, but this is needed to cover the cost of the population being served — which is generally far sicker than the average member in the community."

"This problem has been worsened by the departure of younger, healthier people who are needed to moderate overall costs in the individual insurance marketplace," he said.

The Trump administration says younger people are being chased away by premiums that have been rising for years, citing flaws in Obamacare's original design.

However, Mr. Burrell said "there's been a series of actions taken by the current administration that have undermined enrollment," according to The Hill.

Democrats say the early warning signs are a result of GOP efforts to cripple Obamacare — most notably, repeal of Obamacare's individual mandate to hold insurance.

"The sabotage by the Trump administration and Republicans in Congress is having harmful, real-life consequences on middle-class families throughout the country," said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer. "As the new proposed higher rates in Virginia and now Maryland clearly show, the richest few and biggest corporations got massive tax cuts from Republicans, while average families are stuck paying more for less health care coverage."