Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch today issued the following statement concerning the Office of Health Insurance Commissioner’s announcement last night that it will hold an “open forum” June 15 “to collect additional public comment on (the) rate factors” underlying the proposed rate increases for the coming year (starting this fall with open enrollment) filed by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and UnitedHealthcare. Lynch issued press statements on June 2 and June 4 expressing his strong concern about OHIC not holding an actual public hearing at which Lynch’s Insurance Advocate could challenge the evidence allegedly substantiating the insurers’ proposed rate hikes. Blue Cross has proposed a 13.9 percent rate increase in the plan covering small employers and a 16.3 percent rate hike in the plan covering large employers. UnitedHealthcare’s proposed hikes are 11.6 percent and 13.2 percent, respectively, for small and large employers. AG Lynch’s statement is as follows:

“The Health Insurance Commissioner continues to deny the public the right to examine and critique what he has described as the insurers’ ‘ample evidence’ justifying these rate hikes at a full and fair public hearing. All this announcement does is extend the public comment period by two working days. It denies this office’s Insurance Advocate and the people of Rhode Island the right to use experts to review the documents that were prepared by the insurers’ experts. It merely gives a member of the public, who will suffer by whatever increase the Health Insurance Commissioner ultimately approves based on the evidence he deemed ‘ample’ a week ago, any meaningful opportunity to respond to the insurers’ expertly prepared filings.

“Perhaps most egregious is that we, and presumably all others, received this notice after the close of business Thursday advising us that the public comment period will be extended to Monday. This is no substitution for a full and fair hearing.

“For these reasons, this ‘open forum’ is an empty gesture that causes me to question whether the commissioner is out of touch with Rhode Islanders’ daily struggles in the midst of our state’s ongoing recession. Our simple, logical request, which we’ve made on behalf of small businesses and everyday rate payers, has gone unanswered and so now I must ask again: Why won’t Commissioner Koller give us a real hearing?”

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