Wellpoint Allowed to Hike Insurance Rates in California

Earlier this week, The California Department of Insurance announced that it wouldn’t stand in the way of Wellpoint raising premiums for its customers. This from an article in The Sacramento Bee entitled, “California won’t block individual health care rate hikes”. This news paves the way for Anthem Blue Cross as well as their competitor, Blue Shield of California, raise rates around fourteen to eighteen percent on average for most customers.

This is much less than the proposed thirty-nine percent increase we reported on earlier this year, but it still comes as a shock to many Wellpoint customers. The rate increases are also dependant on age, and some will see their rates rise over fifty percent.

Even with these increases, Blue Shield of California claims they will be losing money on their individual health insurance plans. Whether this is true or not is anyone’s guess, but I doubt Blue Shield of California is getting much sympathy from their customers.

The rate increases will be reviewed by a state-hired actuary to make sure they comply with the state medical loss standard. The California Legislature is also considering whether to give regulators the authority to reject rate increases, which they currently don’t have. It’s sad that nearly a million customers will see their rates go up in these tough economic times.