Health insurers asking for double-digit rate increases on 2027 plans are running into organized resistance from state officials in at least three states. Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts have each pushed back this year on requests from major carriers, using the leverage state law gives regulators to question, reject, or renegotiate proposed premiums before they take effect. For anyone on an individual-market health plan heading into retirement or before Medicare eligibility, the outcome of these reviews determines what a 2027 monthly bill actually looks like.
Connecticut Targets Three Carriers Covering 220,000 People
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong sent a letter to the state’s insurance commissioner on Aug. 24, 2026, urging rejection of rate hikes filed by Anthem, ConnectiCare and UnitedHealthcare. The filings cover individual and small-group plans for roughly 220,000 people statewide. Anthem is seeking a 12.8% increase on individual plans and 17.4% on small-group plans; ConnectiCare is seeking 22.7% on individual plans; and UnitedHealthcare is seeking 18.9% on small-group plans it would offer off the state’s exchange.
Tong’s letter also singled out ConnectiCare for what he described as a mismanaged migration of its claims-payment systems to Molina Healthcare, arguing the carrier requesting the steepest increase delivered some of the worst customer service during that transition. Under Connecticut law, the state’s insurance department must find that approved rates are not “excessive, inadequate, or unfairly discriminatory” before they can take effect, and the department held a public hearing on the requests on Aug. 26.
The letter also raised broader cost drivers behind the requests, including rising prescription drug costs and reimbursement rates tied to increasingly consolidated hospital systems. Tong argued that insurers had not shown they were curbing upcoding or fraudulent billing practices and passing any resulting savings back to policyholders, a pattern he said has repeated across several years of rate filings in the state.
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Rhode Island Fights a Repeat 20%-Plus Request
Rhode Island Attorney General Peter Neronha filed objections on Aug. 25, 2026 against rate increases sought by Neighborhood Health Plan of Rhode Island (NHPRI) and Blue Cross Blue Shield of Rhode Island (BCBSRI), covering more than 50,000 people in the state’s individual insurance market. NHPRI is seeking a double-digit 22% increase for the second consecutive year, and Neronha’s office is separately pushing back on BCBSRI’s smaller 9% request precisely because it stacks on top of a 22% increase the carrier already secured the year before.
Neronha’s office pointed to BCBSRI’s finances as part of its objection, noting the insurer generated an estimated $54 million in additional revenue from last year’s rate increase and is projected to earn roughly $50 million in profit from its individual market business for 2026. Rhode Island requires a public hearing whenever an individual-market insurer proposes a rate increase above 10%, and the state’s insurance commissioner is expected to issue final 2027 rates in September.
Neronha also tied the requests to a separate federal change: Congress did not extend enhanced premium tax credits for the individual market at the end of 2025, which drove a spike in premium costs and a wave of disenrollment in Rhode Island’s individual market. The state legislature responded by creating the Rhode Island Market Place Affordability Program during its 2026 session, offering state-based subsidies to lower-income enrollees, though Neronha’s office argued that program alone does not justify granting the insurers’ full requested increases.
Massachusetts Already Cut One Insurer’s Increase to Zero
Massachusetts moved earlier and further than either neighboring state. On July 22, 2026, the state’s Division of Insurance announced that Commissioner Michael Caljouw had rejected a 25.7% rate increase proposed by Fallon Community Health Plan outright, calling it excessive, while separately renegotiating lower rates with seven other insurers, including Blue Cross Blue Shield of Massachusetts, Harvard Pilgrim, Tufts Health Public Plans and UnitedHealthcare. Those renegotiations are projected to save about $72 million for roughly 670,000 residents and businesses enrolled in the state’s merged individual and small-group market for 2027.
Fallon’s rejected increase is subject to an administrative appeal, meaning the final number is not fully settled. The $72 million in savings builds on a similar push in 2026, when Massachusetts regulators had already negotiated down that year’s proposed increases by an initial $54 million under a state law that expanded the Division of Insurance’s authority to weigh affordability during rate review.
What the Reviews Still Leave Open for 2027
None of these three states has eliminated the increases entirely. Connecticut’s and Rhode Island’s reviews remain in progress, with Connecticut’s public hearing held Aug. 26 and Rhode Island’s commissioner due to issue final rates in September; a rejected or renegotiated request can still come back smaller rather than disappear. Massachusetts shows the range of outcomes on the table: most insurers there saw reduced but real increases, translating into an average 10.4% premium jump for 2027 rather than the roughly 12.9% increase insurers first proposed, while Fallon’s customers face continued uncertainty until the appeal plays out.
For someone buying coverage on the individual market rather than through an employer, the practical takeaway is that a headline rate request rarely survives the review process unchanged. What ends up on a 2027 bill depends on decisions state insurance regulators had not finished making as of late August.
This article was produced with AI assistance and reviewed by The Financial Wire editorial team.
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David M. Keller is a finance writer based in Columbus, Ohio, covering personal finance and consumer-focused economic topics. He earned his degree in journalism from Ohio University and began his career reporting on local business and economic trends for a regional media outlet. Since then, he has contributed to a variety of online publications, focusing on clear, practical coverage of topics such as cost of living, debt, and everyday financial decision-making.
