By Kristen Fountain/VTDigger
For the third consecutive year, the Green Mountain Care Board has approved double-digit increases in annual premiums for Vermont individuals and small organizations that purchase their health insurance through Vermont Health Connect.
The approved premium increases will impact individual and small group plans available on the Affordable Care Act’s state marketplace in 2025, affecting approximately 70,000 people.
According to a press release from the Green Mountain Care Board, the state health regulator will allow Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont (BCBS) to raise individual premiums by 19.8% and small group premiums by 22.8% over this year’s rates. MVP Health Care, the only other insurer offering plans in the market, will be allowed to raise its individual premiums by 14.2% for individuals and 11.1% for small groups over 2024 rates.
Premium increases in the double-digit percentage range have also been approved in these markets for 2023 and 2024.
“These rates reflect profound fundamental flaws in our health care system and the immediate need for systemic change,” said Owen Foster, chair of the Green Mountain Care Board, in a written statement. “Vermont must address its underlying health care cost structure, demographic and housing challenges, and transform its health care system if we are to alleviate the health care crisis we face.”
The health committee’s announcement said that people who purchase a plan on the individual marketplace will continue to have access to expanded federal subsidies next year. Those subsidies would be increased to offset the price increase. The committee urged everyone to check their eligibility for that assistance.
However, the committee acknowledged in its press release that for buyers of small group insurance – typically small businesses and nonprofit organizations – and for individuals whose incomes are too high to qualify for subsidies, “the approved premium increases are painfully high.”
The committee slightly reduced each insurer’s claims based on the findings of its own actuarial advisers. However, the committee largely accepted an amended increase request submitted by Vermont’s BCBS in July, which cited “extraordinary cost pressures” as the reason.
The Vermont Board of Financial Supervisors had warned the nonprofit insurer that its reserves – used to cover higher-than-expected claims – were low enough to trigger a “corporate event,” a circumstance written into state law that requires the insurer to submit a plan to stabilize its reserves. Vermont’s BCBS told the panel it needed the larger premium increase to do that.
“These rates are simply unacceptable, but the alternative of an insolvent insurer unable to pay for patients’ treatment would be even worse,” Foster said in his statement.
