Colorado Group Health Insurance Law Proposed
Rep. Anne McGihon, D-Denver, is proposing that Colorado roll back a law created in 2003 that allows insurers to take the relative health of a group into account when setting health insurance rates. The Denver Business Journal briefly states that the new law “could increase the costs of buying health insurance.”
Hmmmm, but they don’t say how. I even logged in and the entire article is still only 2 sentences long.
Well right now, insurers are able to adjust the rates of small group health insurance down 15% or up 10% based on the health of the group. So in general, the rates will steady out and healthy groups might pay 15% more and unhealthy groups might pay 10% less. I doubt it will have much effect on the standard 1.00 rates given in the future though.
The article could have said “could decrease the costs of buying health insurance” just as easily.
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The small group tier rating has actually caused increased premiums for small groups. The healthy discount band ratings are actually a sham used to increase premiums on insurance rates. I had Anthem BCBS HMO as a BG1, before this policy took effect. I paid $270 a month. For the first year that this law went into effect, Anthem then raised the standard basis rate to some ridiculous level, and I kept the exact same plan and did NOT have a change in age. They still increased my rates 15 percent to $327 and told me that I was getting a ten percent discount for being a “healthy” member. What Anthem actually did, was offer ZERO discounts compared to the previous year, and then raise my rates by 15 percent. For those deemed unhealthy, their rates would have been raised as much as 40 percent. There should only be standard rates that apply to everyone; otherwise, these insurance companies will use the fact that you visited a doctor a few times during the year as an excuse to level you with outrageous rate increases.