The buzz continues! There is a decision coming as early as next week from the Department of Financial Services (DOFS) on whether or not to publicly release insurance plan memos with info on why they think they need to raise people’s premiums again this year.

The Daily News published a lead editorial on the matter yesterday, making the case for why consumers have a right to this information.  You can click here to read the article.

The Brian Lehrer Show also featured HCFANY’s own Elisabeth Benjamin yesterday, who gave a great overview of the current situation and put it into context with info on increases in the past few decades and things like health plan CEO salaries and medical trend.  You can listen to yesterday’s podcast here.

So what do you think? Are you tired of being pushed around by your health insurance plan? Tired of giving up more and more of your paycheck to get less and less in return?

If so, speak up!

HCFANY has put together a template letter that individuals can use to file an objection to their own rate increases, along with some summary information of your own to use if need be.

• Click here to access the template letter of complaint for rate increases (in a Word document)
• Click here to access the summary information (PDF)

Want to learn more about the State’s prior approval process for health insurance rate increases? Check out the nifty overview on the DOFS webpage.