Marie L. Ganim | R.I. health insurance commissioner
1. Who can expect to see the most savings from the state’s reinsurance program that went into effect on Jan. 1, and is there an overall total that you expect health insurance consumers to save in 2020? Middle-class individuals who pay for their own insurance premiums with no help from an employer or a federal credit will feel the relief the most in their monthly budgets. This includes the smallest of R.I. businesses – “sole proprietors” such as many hairdressers and “mom and pop” retailers. Generally, rates for individual market plans were projected to increase up to 7%; but with the new program, premiums will be much lower than they would have been, with many of them decreasing.
2. The Rhode Island Health Care Costs Trends project, created to help curb the growth of health care costs, has entered its second phase. Will any data or reports on cost trends or spending be publicly released this year? This time next year, we will have our first measurement against the overall R.I. health care spending target, and we will be publicly releasing reports on what is causing spending increases in 2020.
3. Is price transparency one of the goals of the project? Cost transparency is the major goal of the project. We will be able to use data to pinpoint our spending problems. By shining a public light on those problems, we can respond as a community to address them. Some particular spending increases may be publicly supported, but only through a transparent process can we have that discussion.
4. Has the annual 3.2% cap in health care cost growth set by the Health Care Cost Trends Committee been effective so far? This Cost Trend project has set an annual target as a goal to keep health spending in line with other state spending on goods and services – projected to be 3.2% over the next few years. The major parties, including the largest hospitals and insurers, have agreed to do whatever they can to meet the target. We have begun measuring our 2017 and 2018 spending and will have the 2019 ... spending data ready to total and compare by the third quarter of 2020.
5. Single-payer systems and Medicare For All are regular talking points for presidential candidates; do you expect any major disruption in the insurance market in coming years? We are very fortunate that Rhode Island has seen stability in our insurance markets, and we have choice of insurers both on our exchange HealthSource RI and in Medicaid. The Affordable Care Act has worked in our state, resulting in Rhode Island moving from having almost 12% of people uninsured to below 4% uninsured now.
Elizabeth Graham is a PBN staff writer. Contact her at Graham@PBN.com.
