Projo 7 to 7 News Blog

WARWICK, R.I. -- Business leaders joined by Lt. Gov. Elizabeth Roberts held a news conference earlier Monday to oppose rate increases proposed by the state's dominant health insurance companies.

The group is urging state Health Insurance Commission Christopher F. Koller to reject the 16.3-percent rate hike sought by Blue Cross & Blue Shield of Rhode Island and the 11.6 percent increase requested by UnitedHealthCare of New England.

The business leaders said that, in this economy, they can't afford to shoulder such large increases or expect their employees to be able to either.

"Let's get the word out," Donald Nokes, president of NetCenergy LLC, said in hoping to rally the business community to spread the message that such increases are "completely unreasonable."

NetCenergy, which provides a variety of information techonology services, hosted the news conference, with Roberts, who provided copies of the letter to Koller. It asks him to reject any rate increases until "we can bring all the stakeholders together to the table and forge a new path forward to control health care costs in Rhode Island."

Koller has posted information online about, and anaylysis of, the proposed rate hikes and is seeking public comment on the proposals.

Among the speakers were Linda Lulli, associate vice president for human resources at Bryant University; J. Michael Vittoria, vice president of human resources at Sperian; Sid Goldman, owner of Greylawn Foods; and Herbert J. Gray, vice president of human resources for Cranston Print Works.

 Tags  health insurance

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