Insurance Department Reduces Anthem Rate Request

The Connecticut Mirror reports that the Connecticut Insurance Department has turned down a request by the state's largest health insurer to raise premiums by 12.9% for more than 25,000 individual-market policies, instead granting the company a 3.9% increase. Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield had said that the higher increase was needed to account for rising claims costs, increased use of services by members, and state and federally mandated benefit changes. The increase could take effect January 1, 2012 for about 25,000 policies covering an estimated 48,000 state residents who buy private insurance on their own rather than through their employer.