Thousands of Colorado consumers insured by Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield will have to stomach huge premium increases for at least the next four months while a state review of the rate hike takes place.
That means policyholders such as Laurie Brock will have little choice but to keep paying higher premiums.
“I really can’t go anywhere else, and all these years I have simply sucked it up,” said Brock, a 60-year-old publishing consultant in Denver who has lupus, making it difficult to switch providers.
Brock said when her premium increased in January, it forced her to move to a higher-deductible plan. Even then, her payments — $834.53 a month to cover herself — were 31 percent higher than before.
Anthem raised most individual policy rates by more than 30 percent in January, causing angry reactions nationwide over rising health care costs and turning the provider into the reform debate’s lightning rod.
Several states have launched inquiries, and Colorado began its own review last week — more than five months after the increase was approved by the Division of Insurance.
A deluge of consumer complaints prompted the review, known as a “market conduct” analysis.
The state hired Leif Associates, a health care actuarial consulting firm in Denver, to do the analysis. The cost of the project will be paid by Anthem, state Division of Insurance officials said.
The review will take eight weeks, but the regulatory process of allowing Anthem time to respond to any findings and a right to appeal any final action could add four more months, Colorado Insurance Commissioner Marcey Morrison said.
“It will be a minimum of four months before consumers might see any change,” said Carol O’Bryan, the division’s director of market regulation.
The state wants to confirm that data Anthem used as the basis for the increases are sound.
Anthem has said the increases were required in part to offset the number of policyholders who dropped coverage in the tight economy, many of them healthy individuals who felt coverage was an unnecessary expense. The company, which is owned by WellPoint, said it welcomed the scrutiny.
For now, some consumers might decide to walk away from Anthem, though many say they’re finding it’s not much cheaper elsewhere.
“It’s actually somewhat tempting to self-insure,” said George Peck of Evergreen, whose premium for an Anthem policy for himself and his wife jumped by 35 percent. “If we’d been putting all the money we’ve been paying Anthem for the last 10 years into some sort of interest-bearing account, we’d probably be in a pretty good position right now to cover a catastrophic health emergency, which is about the only benefit we see in our current Anthem plan, based on its high deductible.”
David Migoya: 303-954-1506 or dmigoya@denverpost.com
