Health insurance rates to increase in 2015

New Yorkers will have to dig a little deeper into their wallets for health insurance in 2015, state officials announced Thursday.

Rates for individual insurance plans - including those offered on New York's Obamacare exchange - will rise on average 5.7% in the coming year, the state's Department of the Financial Services reported. The increases, however, are only about half the amount sought by those insurers in their initial rate requests submitted this summer.

'We closely scrutinized the proposed rate increases insurers requested and reduced them significantly where appropriate,' said Financial Services Superintendent Benjamin Lawsky. 'While we have made substantial progress in reforming our health care market and holding down costs, there is much more work ahead. We will continue to engage with consumer groups, insurers, providers, and other stakeholders as we move forward with that effort.'

Lawsky said the new rates are sill, on average, about 50% lower than those charged before New York rolled out its Obamacare health exchange last year. The state held the line on increases despite a projected 8% increase in overall health care costs.

Among the individual plans, MVP Health Care will have the biggest increase in 2015 with rates rising 9.97%. Several plans, however, will have lower rates, including United HealthCare of New York with a decrease of 15.3%.

Small group plans will rise, on average 6.7% in the coming year, state officials said. The biggest increase among those plans will be felt by patrons of MVP Health Services Corp., whose rates are risig 12.66%.

Consumer groups hailed the new rates and the state's efforts to hold the line on increases.

'Costs do go up and you would expect premiums to go up to offset those costs,' said Blair Horner of the New York Public Interest Research Group. 'I think the Affordable Care Act experiment continues but the initial diagnosis is a good one.'

Insurers, meanwhile, accused state officials of artificially deflating the market.

'We believe this rate setting process is seriously flawed, that the approved rates are inadequate, and that DFS's decisions are irresponsible and do not reflect actuarial reality,' said New York Health Plan Association President Paul Macielak.

'The bottom line is inadequate rates will result in reducing product choice or otherwise de-stabilizing the market, which is ultimately harmful to the health care system as a whole and the to consumers who rely on it,' Macielak said.