Moda Health files for health insurance rate hike

Moda Health, which grabbed the lion's share of the individual health insurance market in Oregon with its low rates this year, wants to hike premiums for individuals next year.

Moda is requesting a 12.1 percent average rate hike.The actual increases will vary between 10.6 percent and 13.7 percent, depending on the plan, said spokesman Jonathan Nicholas.

Will the request make Moda less attractive to consumers during the next open enrollment in November? Moda doesn't think so.

'We were not surprised this week to see wildly varied rate adjustments from our competitors. Many clearly had struggled in 2013 to deliver a value proposition to Oregonians. This fall, many Oregonians will have the opportunity to renew their choice of healthcare partner. Many others will be entering the market for the first time. All of us at Moda are confident that we have for 2015 what we had in 2014 - the highest value product line in the market, ' Nicholas said in an email.

Other rate requests were all over the map.

Providence Health Plan is seeking an average decrease in individual rates of 16.3 percent. Regence BlueCross BlueShield of Oregon is seeking an average 5 percent hike and Kaiser Permanente Northwest essentially wants to keep individual rates stable, with a request for a 0.2 percent increase.

Rate requests were due to the state Insurance Commission on Monday. The final decision on next year's rates is two months away. Before then, the department will conduct an in-depth actuarial review and take public comments. Insurance Commissioner Laura Cali may end up approving the requests or calling for adjustments up or down.

As of mid-April, Moda had sold policies through the Cover Oregon health exchange covering 49,043 people, or 75 percent of policies. Altogether, Moda has about 96,000 people covered, both on and off the exchange.

Elizabeth Hayes covers health care for the Portland Business Journal.