The cost of long-term health insurance for Bentley University biotechnology professor Lynn Arenella will double in the next year, to about $2,600 annually.
This wasn’t supposed to happen. Legislators passed a law in 2012 aimed at protecting consumers from such steep increases. But nearly four years later, amid a tussle between industry and consumer groups, state insurance regulators still haven’t issued final rules for implementing the law, leaving insurance companies to raise certain rates at will.
The delay has allowed Arenella’s insurer, Chicago-based CNA Financial Corp., to raise premiums by close to 100 percent for Massachusetts consumers who bought their policies through their employers, unions, or associations — known as group coverage — with no regulatory review. Hundreds of Massachusetts residents will see their premiums rise by 95 percent over two years, CNA has told customers.
– Boston Globe