Mississippi is Cracking Down on Unreasonable Health Insurance Premium Hikes
For too long, insurance companies in many States have increased health insurance premiums with little oversight, transparency, or public accountability. Some States have both the authority and the capacity to review insurers’ proposed health insurance premium increases. Just 26 States and the District of Columbia have the authority to reject a proposed increase that is excessive, lacks justification or exceeds certain standards. Many do not, and some who have the authority lack the right tools to exercise that authority to reject excessive premium increases. This lack of authority and resources for States has unfortunately contributed to unjustified premium increases. Health insurance premiums have doubled on average over the last 10 years, much faster than wages and inflation, putting coverage out of reach for millions of Americans and business owners.
The Affordable Care Act provides States with $250 million in Health Insurance Premium Review Grants over five years to help states like Mississippi help transform the way they review proposed health insurance premium increases, take action against insurers seeking unreasonable rate hikes, and ensure consumers receive value for their premium dollars.
On August 16, the Department of Health and Human Services announced the award of $46 million in the first round of these grants, including $1 million for Mississippi. The following is a general summary of how Mississippi intends to use its funding:
- Pursue Additional Legislative Authority: Under current law, Mississippi does not approve health insurance premium increases other than for Medicare supplement policies and long term care insurance. The Department of Insurance will seek legislation to provide for the prior review and approval of additional health insurance markets.
- Improve the Review Process: The Department of Insurance proposes to completely overhaul its existing system of health insurance premium review, including regulations, bulletins, standards, IT systems and internal protocols.
- Increase Transparency and Accessibility: Consumers are not now able to search health insurance rate filings. The Department of Insurance proposes to post on its website information on how health insurance premiums are determined and to provide access to filings, increases and the justifications for increases. Mississippi also proposes to develop ways to communicate this information to rural consumers without Internet access.
- Develop and Upgrade Technology: Mississippi will compile raw rate data, increase accessibility to rate filings, and provide health insurance premium information to the public.
The Health Insurance Premium Review Grants are one element of a broad effort under the Affordable Care Act to reduce the unsustainable rates of increase proposed by some insurers today. Additional resources from this $250 million program for rate review will be available in subsequent years to further strengthen State health insurance premium review procedures.