In the midst of our health plan insurance renewals, I can’t help but wonder how inflated the rate quotes might become because of the recent health care reform. Surely, I’m not the only person wondering about this.
As an HR Professional, and the one who works the most with our broker to shop and design the insurance plans, I have come to expect that even if we have a spectacular year with our claims, we’re going to see some sort of increase. That’s normal, even if it’s a percent or two.
However, with that being said, I thought you might find today’s HR Morning story interesting. They’re following-up on a Wall Street Journal story from last Friday on the same topic. Interestingly, in both reports, the message from the Government was clear – insurance companies that try to raise premiums now and blame it on the reform will have problems later.
But the immediate concern becomes…hopefully companies won’t have to suffer long while the IRS (who will be overseeing the health care reform) hires the auditors, agents and investigators they need to police any retaliatory actions by the carriers. For everyone’s sake, I hope the auditors are out on the street sooner than later…