For the third consecutive year, the Green Mountain Care Board has approved double-digit increases in annual premiums for Vermont individuals and small organizations that purchase health insurance plans through Vermont Health Connect.
The approved premium increases would affect both individual and small group plans available in state-run Affordable Care Act marketplaces in 2025, affecting about 70,000 people.
The state’s health care regulators will allow Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont to raise individual premiums by 19.8% and small group premiums by 22.8% over this year’s rates, according to a press release from the Green Mountain Care Board. MVP Healthcare, the only other insurer offering plans on the marketplace, will be allowed to raise individual premiums by 14.2% and small group premiums by 11.1% over 2024 rates.
Double-digit premium increases were also approved for 2023 and 2024 in these markets.
“These rates reflect fundamental flaws in our health care system and demonstrate the urgent need for systemic reform,” Owen Foster, chairman of the Green Mountain Care board of directors, said in a written statement. “Vermont must address the underlying cost structure, demographic and housing issues and reform our health care system if we are to alleviate the affordability crisis we face.”
The Committee on Care’s announcement said people who buy plans on the individual market will continue to receive expanded federal subsidies next year. The subsidies will increase to make up for rising prices. The Committee encouraged all individuals to find out if they qualify for the subsidies.
But the commission acknowledged in a statement that “the approved premium increases are painfully high” for small group plan purchasers (typically small businesses and nonprofits) and individuals whose incomes are too high to qualify for subsidies.
The commission slightly reduced the insurers’ requests based on the findings of its actuarial consultants, but it largely accepted a revised increase request submitted by BCBS Vermont in July, citing “extraordinary cost pressures.”
The Vermont Department of Financial Regulation had warned nonprofit insurers that reserves used to cover larger-than-expected claims were low enough to trigger a “corporate action-level event.” Enshrined in state law It would require insurers to come up with plans to stabilize their reserves. Vermont’s BCBS told the care board it needed to raise premiums significantly to achieve that goal.
“While these fees are clearly unacceptable, the alternative of bankrupt insurance companies that cannot pay for patient care is even worse,” Foster said in a statement.
