Questions Surround How Insurers Are Disclosing — Or Not — Their 2015 Proposed Rates
News outlets from Florida and Iowa report on recent developments in these states.
Health News Florida: How HMOs Hid Rates On State Site
How much will it cost Floridians to buy coverage next year on Healthcare.gov? Lots of people want to know, but the insurers are keeping the prices secret in an unprecedented way (Gentry, 7/16).
Des Moines Register: Rate Increase Hearing Set For 18k Wellmark Customers
About 18,000 customers of Wellmark Blue Cross & Blue Shield will get the chance next month to sound off about a proposed rate increase, but the hearing will probably draw fewer people than previous ones. The Iowa Insurance Division's Aug. 23 hearing only affects customers holding policies with proposed premium increases of more than 6.1 percent. Wellmark, which is the state's dominant health insurance carrier, has proposed lower rate increases than that for most of its customers. The higher proposed rates this time – of 11.9 percent to 14.5 percent – affect people who bought new individual policies that meet the 2014 rules of the federal Affordable Care Act. Most of Wellmark's customers have older policies, which don't meet all those requirements but face smaller premium increases. State law requires the insurance division to hold public hearings when health insurers propose premium increases over 6.1 percent (Leys, 7/16).