Tennessee’s Insurance Chief Signs Off On 2018 Rates While Chiding Congress

Tennessee has approved another sizeable rate hike for Obamacare insurance plans. But the state’s insurance commissioner is also highlighting the failure of a bi-partisan plan to stabilize the federal marketplace.

BlueCross BlueShield of Tennessee requested an average rate increase of 21 percent. Cigna asked to raise premiums by 42 percent. There’s also a new insurer in the marketplace called Oscar Health. All of the companies blamed their rate requests on the uncertainty in Washington.

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Tennessee insurance commissioner Julie Mix McPeak said
when those rates were submitted she was “disappointed” and hoped that the 235,000 residents on Obamacare would see “more moderate” changes in their premiums. This year, she has appeared twice in congressional hearings, saying lawmakers should find a way to level out the marketplace.

A bipartisan effort spearheaded by Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander fell apart this week. McPeak says — again — she’s “disappointed.”

“Instead, it appears more likely that Tennesseans must prepare themselves for a round of actuarially justified rates for 2018 that are far higher than could be necessary as a result of uncertainty in Washington,” she says
in a statement.

This year’s enrollment period is shorter than usual. It starts Nov. 1 and runs through mid-December. The roughly 235,000 Tennesseans who signed up for coverage last year was
down from 2015. But the number of uninsured in Tennessee
has continued to drop.