Vermont: 2015 Rates to increase 7.8% avg (weighted)

This is a fairly short article. The thing that's noteworthy about my "weighting" is that I had to combine both the individual QHPs as well as VT's SHOP enrollments due to the unique situation in that state (it's a long story). QHPs + SHOP = around 66,600 paid enrollees as of the end of July. Since BCBSVT has 65K of those (over 97%), that gives a weighted average increase of around 7.8%.

Again, the other important things to note are that 1) this is still well below the "double-digit spikes!!" that nay-sayers have been screaming about for the past year, and 2) it's also around 20% lower on average than what the insurers had originally requested (weighted average).

MONTPELIER — People who buy their health insurance through the Vermont Health Connect website are going to be seeing their rates go up.

On Tuesday, the Green Mountain Care Board authorized Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont to increase its rates an average of 7.7 percent while MVP subscribers will see their rates increase 10.9 percent.

Blue Cross, the state’s largest health care insurer with about 65,000 customers enrolled through Vermont Health Connect, had requested an increase of 9.8 percent while MVP asked for 15.3 percent.