I have blogged several times about the health insurance situation in Massachusetts. To briefly recap state regulators denied premium increase requests made by the major carriers in the state. The carriers appealed this decision which led the governor to impose arbitrary rate caps in April. Recently an appeals panel overturned the rate caps for Harvard Pilgrim which of course makes one wonder if the caps will be overturned for all he carriers.
There is also strong disagreement within the DOI over the rate caps. From the Boston Globe:
The decision by the appeals panel of three department lawyers — Susan L. Donegan, Jean F. Farrington, and Stephen M. Sumner — highlighted a widening rift in the Division of Insurance over the rate caps. The dissension first came to light earlier this month when the division released e-mails from Robert G. Dynan, deputy commissioner for financial analysis, who warned rate caps could lead to a “train wreck’’ in the insurance industry. The division is responsible both for approving rate increases and for ensuring the financial health of state health insurance carriers, goals that can sometimes be at cross purposes.
Rate caps really are at best a temporary solution. Health care costs need to be contained and care needs to be provided more efficiently. Unfortunately the health care system is not there yet.
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