Taking on an old rival, California’s insurance commissioner has recommended that Anthem be excluded from the state’s new marketplace for small-business health coverage.
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones cited three “unreasonable” rate increases in 2013 for small- business health plans from Anthem Blue Cross Life and Health Insurance Company.
“Anthem has engaged in a pattern of excessive and unjustifiable rate increases for its small employer customers and therefore they should not be permitted to participate in California’s small employer health Exchange,” Jones said June 13.
The move came after Anthem raised its coverage costs for small businesses 7.2 percent as of July 1. The 12-month cumulative increase for these Anthem customers is 17.6 percent, the Department of Insurance said.
Jones said the only “potential consequence under the Affordable Care Act is to exclude Anthem from the small employer health benefit Exchange, and that is exactly what I am recommending.”
Anthem told the Los Angeles Times that the increases reflected the “economic reality” of health care costs.
The commissioner also is seeking to exclude sister company Anthem Blue Cross of California, which has the same top executives and ownership (WellPoint Inc.).
Anthem Blue Cross is one of the 13 insurers participating in the Covered California exchange for individual buyers, as announced May 23.
Covered California chief Peter Lee said he would consider the commissioner’s recommendation, but the exchange is not bound to follow the advice to exclude the insurance giant.
The state was expected to roll out the health plans made available to small-business employers in early June, but it appears that won’t happen until as late as August, the Sacramento Business Journal reported. “Concern about rates” appears to be the issue, the Journal said.
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