The House Commerce Committee heard testimony on a bill that would cap health insurance premium increases for small business at 25% for the next two years. As New Hampshire Public Radio's Raquel Maria Dillon reports, Senate Bill 419 came under attack from all sides.
The lawmakers, small business owners, and insurance company representatives who testified at the hearing talked about Senate Bill 110 just as much as they did about SB 419. SB 110 passed last year and allows insurance companies to include other factors – geography, profession, and health status – when they calculate the cost of health insurance for small businesses.
Lawmakers hoped that those changes would entice new insurance providers into the New Hampshire market. More competition they argued would slow the annual premium increases for small business.
SB419 would cap health insurance premium increases at 25% per year over the next two years. It passed the Senate 24-0. But most of the people who testified before the House Commerce Committee didn't have anything good to say about S-B-419.
The bill's sponsor, state Senator Bob Flanders, was the only person who spoke in favor of it. He says the two year cap will protect businesses until the SB110 changes can attract more competition and lower premiums
FLANDERS :16 I have to remind you that 110 hasn't worked yet. We have to give 110 some time to work. The companies who are coming in aren't here yet. There are people who just can't wait to repeal 110, and I think it's wrong.
Phil Desmond is one of those people. He owns Brown Furniture in West Lebanon. He can't wait because his health insurance premiums went up 40% and his wife has cancer.
DESMOND :17 when your wife has cancer, nobody wants you. Call it competition? A 39.8% rate increase by a company we had been doing biz with for many years. they were glad to accept the premiums, but now that we need them not glad to accept our premiums.
Desmond says now he can't afford to relocate his business, hire new employees, or compete in the furniture business.
DESMOND :10 This increase is unfair, and undermines the basic principle of diversified risk which is at the heart of insurance.
The state's major health insurers – Cigna and Anthem – defended SB110, but oppose the 25% cap proposed in SB 419. Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield's lobbyist, Yvonne Nanasi, urged the House not to tinker with SB110 because any temporary cap on rate increases would simply delay the impact of the new health insurance law.
NANASI :10 As good as it may sound, the all inclusive 25% premium cap is detrimental to small biz and to state's health insurance market.
Anthem and Cigna complained that the cap would be unfair to companies who have insured New Hampshire businesses for years. They said new companies who never had New Hampshire customers before would not be restricted to the 25% cap.
SB419 also included privacy protections for the family health statements that employees must fill out. But Anthem's Nanasi suggested that those measures should be included in another bill, and the House should kill SB 419.
For NHPR News, I'm RMD.
