SEARCH SITE

VIRGINIA LAW PORTAL

SEARCHABLE DATABASES

ACROSS SESSIONS

Developed and maintained by the Division of Legislative Automated Systems.

2018 SESSION

18101624D
SENATE JOINT RESOLUTION NO. 49
Offered January 10, 2018
Prefiled January 10, 2018
Directing the Joint Commission on Health Care to identify options to address rising premiums for health benefit plans sold in the Commonwealth. Report.
----------
Patron-- Deeds
----------
Referred to Committee on Rules
----------

WHEREAS, the National Conference of State Legislatures has noted that nationwide annual premiums reached $18,764 in 2017; and

WHEREAS, Virginia is one of seven federally run exchange states that conduct their own plan management; and

WHEREAS, in September 2017, a state health actuary with the Bureau of Insurance advised the Health Insurance Reform Commission (HIRC) that the average rate increases for individual policies offered on the exchange for 2018 were expected to be 57.7 percent, with average monthly premiums ranging from roughly $500 to $1,050; and

WHEREAS, the major drivers for the increases were identified as changes to child age factors and morbidity and assumed lack of cost-sharing reduction (CSR) funding; and

WHEREAS, the HIRC was advised at that September 2017 meeting of Avalere Health's release of a study that found that guaranteeing CSR payments, stabilizing reinsurance, delaying health insurance tax, and requiring continuous coverage would lead to a reduction in premiums of 17 percent; and

WHEREAS, other state-level factors that have been identified as possible tools to increase market stability and affordability include drug price transparency, hospital and carrier competition, rural area incentives such as telemedicine, encouraging a healthy risk pool, and regularly reviewing the necessity of mandates; and

WHEREAS, Alaska has been cited as an example of a state where implementation of a state reinsurance program in accordance with a state innovation waiver was approved under § 1332 of the federal Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act; and

WHEREAS, Aetna and United HealthCare exited the Virginia exchange at the end of 2017; and

WHEREAS, while Anthem offered health plans statewide in 2017, it will offer plans in only 68 localities in 2018; and

WHEREAS, according to a Kaiser Family Foundation analysis of premium changes from 2017 to 2018 for a 40-year-old, the Charlottesville area, where plans are available only from Optima Health after the withdrawal of Aetna and Health Keepers, has the highest percentage increase in pre-subsidy premiums in the nation, at all metal levels; and

WHEREAS, for a 40-year-old who is ineligible for premium subsidies, the lowest-priced bronze plan in the Charlottesville area is 247 percent more expensive than it was in 2017; for a silver plan it is 234 percent more expensive; and for a gold plan it is 195 percent more expensive; and

WHEREAS, an article in the New York Times dated November 16, 2017, cited the experience of a family in Charlottesville that found the cheapest health plan for 2018 cost more than $2,400 a month, or nearly $30,000 a year, while coverage for 2017 under a plan offered by Anthem cost $988 per month; and

WHEREAS, the rising premiums for health benefit plans is a central fact in any discussion of health policy and health delivery; now, therefore, be it

RESOLVED by the Senate of Virginia, the House of Delegates concurring, That the Joint Commission on Health Care be directed to identify options to address rising premiums for health benefit plans sold in the Commonwealth.

In conducting its study, the Joint Commission on Health Care (JCHC) shall identify the extent to which premiums for private health benefit plans subject to Title 38.2 of the Code of Virginia in the individual, small group, and large group markets have increased over the past decade; determine the causes driving such increases; attempt to predict increases in the premiums for such health benefit plans over the next decade; compare the increases of premiums for such health benefit plans in the Commonwealth to such increases in other states; and identify legislative and regulatory actions by other states that have been effective in reducing, or tempering the rate of increase in, the premiums for such health benefit plans.

Technical assistance shall be provided to the JCHC by the State Corporation Commission's Bureau of Insurance. All agencies of the Commonwealth shall provide assistance to JCHC for this study, upon request.

The Joint Commission on Health Care shall complete its meetings by November 30, 2018, and the chairman shall submit to the Division of Legislative Automated Systems an executive summary of its findings and recommendations no later than the first day of the 2019 Regular Session of the General Assembly. The executive summary shall state whether the JCHC intends to submit to the General Assembly and the Governor a report of its findings and recommendations for publication as a House or Senate document. The executive summary and report shall be submitted as provided in the procedures of the Division of Legislative Automated Systems for the processing of legislative documents and reports and shall be posted on the General Assembly's website.