NC OKs higher rates to keep Blue Cross policies

EMERY P. DALESIO
AP Business Writer

RALEIGH, NC (AP) — North Carolina’s insurance commissioner is clearing the state’s largest health insurer to raise premiums by between 16 percent and 24 percent on policies that would have been canceled for failing to meet minimum requirements required by the new federal law.

Insurance Commissioner Wayne Goodwin said Tuesday his office approved the rate increases requested by Blue Cross and Blue Shield of North Carolina. The decision means people who had one of the nearly 152,000 cancelled policies can keep them next year at the higher cost.

An agency spokeswoman says Blue Cross is the only one of 21 insurers who have cancelled policies to move to extend plans.

A spokeswoman for the next two largest health insurers – Aetna and its subsidiary Coventry Health – declined to comment Tuesday.

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