Maintaining Low Premiums and Protecting the Affordable Care Act in Rhode Island

WHEREAS, Rhode Island's state based marketplace, HealthSource RI ("HSRI"), has created a competitive marketplace, offering the lowest cost benchmark plan1 nationwide in 2018, and resulting in two rate decreases from 2015 to 2018;

WHEREAS, Rhode Island has established the Office of the Health Insurance Commissioner's ("OHIC") strong role in rate review of premiums and consumer protections in health insurance;

WHEREAS, OHIC has worked hard to limit rate increases from insurance companies, saving Rhode Islanders almost $22 million this year alone. Since 2012, OHIC has saved consumers over $250 million by approving lower rates than requested;

WHEREAS, I recently signed into law authority to apply for a waiver to establish a reinsurance program that will keep premiums on the individual market low by protecting Rhode Island's market from the disruptive policies coming out of Washington;

WHEREAS, the Trump Administration's actions threaten to reverse this progress and destabilize the group and individual insurance markets;

WHEREAS, those actions have included defunding federal payments for lower income Rhode Islanders on HSRI, repealing the ACA penalties for failing to have health insurance, and proposing expansion of the sale of short-term and association health plans that may not cover pre-existing conditions or critical services such as maternity care or mental health counseling;

WHEREAS, the Trump Administration actions are predicted to result in: an unbalanced risk pool, loss of coverage, and erosion of key consumer protections and essential benefits, and could result in an estimated 17,000 fewer Rhode Islanders enrolled on the individual market, which, in turn, would result in rising premiums for the remaining insured persons; and

WHEREAS, 59% percent of Rhode Islanders enrolled in the individual market benefit from federal assistance to make their insurance affordable, and 41 % are unsubsidized with no mechanism in place to insulate them from bearing the full effect of rate increases.

NOW, THEREFORE, I, Gina M. Raimondo, by virtue of the authority vested in me as Governor of the State of Rhode Island and Providence Plantations, do hereby order and direct the following:

    The State of Rhode Island shall remain dedicated to the principles of the ACA, working tirelessly to ensure access to affordable and quality healthcare for all Rhode Islanders;

This Executive Order shall take effect immediately.