At the end of August, the Connecticut Insurance Department approved health insurance rate changes for the 2016 plan year. Although the changes affect over 300,000 Connecticut residents, the rate approval process can be difficult to understand. The following is a guide that highlights the most important steps in the process.
Around April each year, insurers submit a rate change request to the department, along with any actuarial material necessary to justify the increase or decrease in price. The department reviews this material and may elect to hold a public hearing on the proposed change.
Once submitted, the rate requests become public. Insurers may then adjust their proposed rates in consultation with the department, which conducts its own actuarial review. If the department disagrees with the insurer’s request, it can ask the insurer to recalculate the proposed change based on different data assumptions. This is called a revised rate request.
The department then approves or disapproves the rate change. This final rate may not be the same as the insurer’s revised request.
We’ve compiled each insurer’s original, revised, and approved average rate request into this searchable graph. (Averages are used because insurers file a range for each rate change).
