Kreidler on nonprofit health insurer surpluses: "How much is enough?"

Commissioner Kreidler recently had an op-ed in the Seattle Times, talking about the large surpluses that have been built up by non-profit health insurers in recent years. From it:

In Washington, the three major health insurers — Premera Blue Cross, Regence BlueShield and Group Health Cooperative — are sitting on a total of more than $2.4 billion above and beyond what they expect to ever pay out in claims. All of them are not-for-profits. And they continue to propose substantial rate increases.

He is proposing legislation that would give the insurance commissioner's office explicit authority to consider those surpluses when reviewing rate requests.

We're working on a web page that explains this issue in more detail, and includes charts of the major insurers' surpluses over the past decade. Stay tuned...