The Green Mountain Care Board will soon determine if the health insurance premiums for more than 80,000 Vermonters are going to be substantially hiked – by as much as nearly 16 percent!
Are you one of them? If so, we’re asking you to join Rights & Democracy and the Vermont Health Care Advocate to speak up!
The state’s largest health insurer, Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont, is proposing a 15.6% average rate increase. MVP Health Care is looking for a 9.4% average increase for its exchange plans. You can read about it all on VTDigger.
Rights & Democracy is working to help folks testify at the Green Mountain Care Board’s special public hearing on Tuesday, July 23rd from 4:30-6:30PM in Montpelier City Hall.
If you’re interested in testifying during any of the day-long hearings specific to Blue Cross and Blue Shield of Vermont or MVP Health Care, let us know!
Fill out this form on our website and let us know if you have a story to share with the Board so that we can push back against these unsustainable increases. For example:
- Does your insurance plan leave you with paying too much out-of-pocket through copays and deductibles?
- Are your monthly insurance premiums too difficult to afford?
- If you receive health care coverage through Medicaid, have you ever refused to take a new job because the pay increase wasn’t enough to cover deductibles, copays, or premiums of the private insurance market?
We know all too well that today’s health care system needs more than minor fixes and to make the change we want to see, we need regulators and insurance executives to hear the stories of everyday Vermonters who suffer as a result of today’s system.
Vermonters with premium subsidies may pay more or less next year. For these Vermonters, changes to how much they have to pay are mostly based on income, family size and which plan they choose during the next open enrollment.
The Green Mountain Care Board must consider public comments when deciding the 2020 premium prices. You can tell the board what you think of the proposed prices. Visit the How the Public Can Participate guide posted by Vermont’s Office of the Health Care Advocate.
If you have questions about your health insurance, or health care access, contact the Office of the Health Care Advocate at 1-800-917-7787.