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Long‑term care policyholders press for public hearings before large rate increases; insurers caution overburdening regulator
Summary
Policyholders and advocates urged the legislature to require public hearings before approving large long‑term care insurance rate increases so affected holders can present impacts. Insurers and regulators supported targeted solutions and said mandatory hearings for every filing would be burdensome and risk exposing proprietary material.
Multiple long‑term care policyholders told the committee that recent, large rate increases have arrived with little notice and force many older policyholders to cut benefits or surrender coverage they bought decades ago.
"Our premiums have more than doubled while our retirement income has risen slowly," said one policyholder, who described receiving short‑notice letters and limited options. Advocates said consumer input would help the department evaluate rate requests and assess whether companies’ prior decisions — including stopping new sales of the same product — had created artificial shortfalls.
Industry representatives supported the department’s ability to approve new product designs intended to avoid previously observed market failures, and warned that a mandatory public hearing for every long‑term care filing would burden regulators and risk revealing proprietary actuarial data. ACLI and trade groups suggested a discretionary hearing or enhanced transparency and data reporting instead.
Insurance Department staff said they want authority to review innovative product designs and that a targeted public‑comment or hearing mechanism might be appropriate for materially large increases; they cautioned about creating a process that would slow the regulatory review of many filings.
Lawmakers signaled interest in balancing consumer input and regulatory efficiency; sponsors plan to refine language to narrow triggers and assure confidentiality protections where necessary.
