The following KING-5 story gives you a pretty good description of the mess that’s brewing with Blue Cross-Regence customers. The company has sent letters explaining what next year’s rates are. From the looks of the video it looks like if you have an above average number of kids you could see quite the spike.
Vanessa Ho at seattlepi.com also covered the issue. Regence is raising individual rates by 16 percent. One important point: This is the fourth year in a row Regence has raised rates by double-digit percentage points, according to the story.
We had our own story in September, which Stephanie Marquis from the state insurance commissioner’s office speculating that rates would go up by double-digit percentages in 2011, with about 3 points attributed to the new health care law.
The company also plans to end child-only policies in Washington and a couple other states (Oregon and Utah), which would indicate the company’s problems are with state insurance laws, not national ones.
They already jumped ours up by 25%, so we switched to Lifewise and saved over $200/mo
I signed on with Regence for individual coverage three years ago. Since then, I have had to triple my deductible to keep the price the same. After receiving my very own increase letter in the mail this year (now an expected September occurrence), I decided enough was enough. When I called to cancel, the woman on the phone informed me that there was such a backup in policy cancelations that they wouldn’t be able to actually cancel my policy until November. I couldn’t help but laugh right into the phone.