The head of the Assembly Health Committee has blasted as unjustified the proposed double-digit rate increases New York insurers are requesting for new ObamaCare policies — and called for a probe into possible bait-and-switch tactics.
Manhattan Assemblyman Richard Gottfried on Thursday suggested that insurers low-balled prices in 2013 to lure in customers — before hammering them with an average 13 percent rate-hike request this year.
“The insurance carriers may have low-balled their premiums last year in order to grab market share on the health exchange. This is not unheard of. They should not be rewarded if that’s what’s going on,” Gottfried said.
“It’s hard to see how these increases are justified. Health-care costs have not increased that much.”
Health Republic, a new insurer that has grabbed 40 percent of the state’s ObamaCare market, is requesting an average 15.2 percent hike for individual plans.
MetroPlus Health Plan, the insurer affiliated with the city’s Health and Hospital Corporation, requested an average 18.5 percent increase.
And Empire HealthChoice HMO Inc. is seeking 18 percent more.
The three insurers cover more than half of individuals in the state’s ObamaCare exchange.
The lobbying arm for health insurers denied that carriers were requesting unreasonable increases or had engaged in bait-and-switch tactics.
“It’s not true. It’s not a case of bait-and-switch. It’s irresponsible to say things like that,” said Leslie Moran, spokeswoman for the New York State Health Plan Association.
Moran lauded the Affordable Care Act for increasing access and expanding coverage for the previously uninsured.
But she said rates will continue to rise until the government takes actions to control underlying medical costs that are out of insurance companies’ control.
“Maybe this is a wake-up call that we need to shift to making medical care affordable and not just available,” she said.
The state Department of Financial Services, which regulates insurance carriers, is expected to rule on the rate requests next month.
Last year, health insurers in New York requested weighted average increases of about 12.4 percent, and ended up getting 7.5 percent.
At the time, DFS said the increase in premiums was “below the 10 percent increase in health-care costs.”
Meanwhile, insurers are telling customers that ObamaCare requirements are partly to blame for other proposed hikes.
Aetna sent a notice to one of its small-business-group customers seeking a 26.8 percent jump in its 2015 premiums.
“The requested increase is directly related to two main drivers: the overall rising cost of health-care services in New York and the projected impact of the federal risk-adjustment program that was put in place by the Affordable Care Act,” Aetna said.
Moran said some insurers are already reporting losses from participation in the ObamaCare exchange.
And she warned that if Albany artificially lowers the rates, insurers may not only pull out of the ObamaCare exchange, they might pull out of the high-cost state entirely.