Saud Anwar

Senator Anwar Opposes Insurance Rate Hikes at 2020 Public Rate Hearings Tuesday

HARTFORD, CT – Today, State Senator Saud Anwar (D-South Windsor) publicly opposed rate hikes sought by health insurance companies at the Connecticut Insurance Department 2020 Health Insurance Public Rate Hearings at the State Capitol. Addressing members of the Connecticut Insurance Department, Commissioner Andrew Mais and representatives of insurance carriers, Sen. Anwar took issue with several proposed rate increases, including one increase requested of 22 percent. The average increase among various proposals was more than 11 percent, which Sen. Anwar found to be far too high.

Sen. Anwar urged the Insurance Department to hold increases at the federally mandated health insurer tax and average cost of care increases, urging that current rate increases “are not sustainable for individual consumers and small and medium-sized businesses.”

“These increase requests are excessive and unfair,” said Sen. Anwar. “The insurance industry needs to move toward meaningful investment in prevention care, risk contracts and better models of healthcare delivery in collaboration with healthcare systems. Deductible plans are a challenge harming consumers; these high-deductible plans can lead consumers to pay their insurance costs out of pocket for almost half the year, all the while they are paying higher premiums. They are getting hurt twice financially.”

Sen. Anwar took further issue with insurance information language, which is confusing and pushes consumers into paying for services that they don’t need, further increasing the financial burden they face. Stakeholders need to develop a long-term strategy, which is necessary to find solutions for reducing the cost of delivery of healthcare, medication cost and insurance cost, he said.