Singular insurance getting costlier

TRENTON, N.J. -- People in at least three states who buy their own health insurance are getting hit with premium increases of 15 percent or more -- and people in other states could see the same thing.

Anthem Blue Cross, a subsidiary of WellPoint Inc., has been under fire for a week from regulators and politicians for notifying some of its 800,000 individual policyholders in California that it plans to raise rates by up to 39 percent March 1.

The Anthem Blue Cross plan in Maine is asking for increases of about 23 percent this year for some individual policyholders. Last year, they raised rates up to 32 percent.

And in Oregon, multiple insurers were granted rate hikes of 15 percent or more this year after increases of around 25 percent last year for customers who purchase individual health insurance, rather than getting it through their employer.

Anthem's Nevada operation hasn't yet completed its individual premium prices, so company executives couldn't comment on the rates that residents of the Silver State might see in the coming year, spokeswoman Sally Kweskin said Thursday.

With 300,000 insureds in Nevada, Anthem is the state's second-biggest health insurer.

UnitedHealth Group, which has 800,000 customers in Nevada, ranks as the state's largest health insurer. And so far, UnitedHealth's premium increases have been low compared with rate hikes in other states.

The Nevada Division of Insurance approved on Nov. 1 premium increases ranging from 3.8 percent to 9.5 percent, depending on which UnitedHealth subsidiary is offering the coverage.

Cheryl Randolph, a spokeswoman with UnitedHealth, said the company bases its premiums on factors, including geographic markets, utilization of care within a market, plan benefit structure, age and health status,. Rising costs for new drugs, procedures and technologies, as well as utilization of care, are the major drivers of premiums, she said.

Premiums are far more volatile for individual policies than for those bought by employers and other large groups, which have bargaining clout and a sizable pool of people among which to spread risk. As more people have lost jobs, many who are healthy have decided to go without health insurance or get a bare-bones, high-deductible policy, reducing the amount of premiums insurers receive.

Steep rate hikes in this sliver of the insurance market -- about 13 million Americans, as of 2008 -- have popped up sporadically for years. Observers see them becoming increasingly common.

"You're going to see rate increases of 20, 25, 30 percent" for individual health policies in the near term, Sandy Praeger, chairwoman of the health insurance and managed care committee for the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, predicted Friday.

Most states don't have the legal authority to block or reduce health insurance rate increases, Praeger noted.

Politicians and even some health insurers, including Anthem, are urging a revival of the stalled effort in Congress to overhaul the health care system, arguing everyone needs to be covered by health insurance in order to prevent such premium spikes.

In Maine, where Anthem dominates the market, its proposal has several consumer groups planning big rallies at two public hearings on the rates, on Feb. 22 and 24.

Under Anthem's proposal, a family of four could be charged up to $1,876 per month if the proposed rates are allowed to take effect in July.

On Friday, Maine House Speaker Hannah Pingree and Senate President Elizabeth Mitchell wrote to two congressmen who have scheduled a Feb. 24 hearing on Anthem's pending rate hikes in California, asking them to also look into the proposed hike in Maine.

"We frankly have been very frustrated by the size of these increases," Pingree told The Associated Press. "Obviously, they are attempting to price certain people out of the market."

Review-Journal writer Jennifer Robison contributed to this report.