Gov. Dannel P. Malloy has vetoed legislation that would have required the state Department of Insurance to hold public hearings on rate increase requests from health insurers that exceed 10 percent.
Senate Bill 11, which passed both chambers of the state legislature, would have required state insurance regulators to hold up to 15 public “symposiums” per year when a rate increase request from a health insurance company exceeded 10 percent and the attorney general or healthcare advocate requested a public airing.
Lawmakers pushed for the symposium as a way to create more transparency on the rate approval process in the wake of escalating premium increases in Connecticut and around the country.
But Malloy vetoed the measure July 1, saying he is convinced that law will not reduce the cost of health insurance premiums and that insurance regulators already do an adequate job regulating the industry.
“The Connecticut Department of Insurance already conducts an objective actuarial analysis of each and every rate increase request,” Malloy wrote in his veto letter to Secretary of the State Denise Merrill. “The Department regularly rejects rate increase requests that are not actuarially warranted. The current process fully protects Connecticut’s residents from excessive and discriminatory rate increases.”
Malloy also cited cost concerns as part of his veto message, saying the symposiums would add $181,800 to the current budget, and could be even more costly. He also said the law would be onerous and could drive health insurers out of the Connecticut market.
