With two of the state’s dominant health insurers seeking double-digit rate increases, Rhode Island’s attorney general is urging insurance regulators to hold a public hearing on the matter.

Patrick C. Lynch

Attorney General Patrick C. Lynch wants the state’s health insurance commissioner, Christopher Koller, to go further than just a public comment period, ending June 5, on the proposed increases, according to the Providence Journal. Lynch called the public comment period a “token” measure and “inadequate and without meaning,” according to the report.

Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island is proposing an increase of average premiums of 13.9% for small employers and 16.3% for large employers. UnitedHealthcare of New England, meanwhile, is seeking increases of 11.6% and 13.2%, the Journal said.

Lynch said given constantly rising health insurance premiums, “it’s an outrageous affront to the individuals, families and businesses” relying on the insurers to then be excluded from a process that would increase those prices again.

Furthermore, Lynch said Koller’s office stresses transparency, “but when you have an opportunity to have a full public review of rate increases that will affect countless Rhode Island citizens, you apparently have decided to draw the curtain and consider these rates and rating factors behind closed doors,” according to the Journal.

Koller reacted by indicating that a public hearing is an option, not a requirement for such requests by insurers and said his office has not made a decision on the matter. The commissioner added that both insurers submitted “ample information” for review by his office and a decision on whether a public hearing is needed will come “in the next few weeks,” the newspaper reported.