HMSA raises rates by 18 percent for individuals

The Hawaii Medical Service Association announced on Dec. 11 that it will raise rates by an average 18.2 percent on Jan. 1 for some 18,000 members with individual health plans. State Insurance Commissioner J.P. Schmidt also approved the state’s largest health insurer’s request to boost rates by an average of 11.4 percent for approximately 150 large businesses with some 130,000 members.

HMSA has approximately 700,000 members. Schmidt said the rate increase was justified because HMSA has suffered losses on individual plans for several years. Individual plans are offered to people who do not receive health insurance through an employer or spouse. The plans are medically-underwritten, meaning individuals provide a detailed medical history to the health plan before they are approved for coverage.

On Dec. 10, Kaiser Permanente Hawaii got approval to raise rates by an average 4.9 percent for approximately 6,000 companies that will affect 167,232 members. Kaiser, the state’s largest health maintenance organization, has 223,000 members in Hawaii.