Grace period for health insurance premiums possible

Under escalating pressure to share in the financial pain of the coronavirus pandemic, health insurance underwriters are taking a major step as a group — waiving deductibles for patients who contract the virus, which can require thousands of dollars for hospital care.

Gov. Ned Lamont said Tuesday an even bigger step is in the offing in Connecticut: A commitment by carriers to delay collecting premiums coming due from customers in financial straits. The governor did not provide details, but suggested he would make an announcement Wednesday.

“I am very confident that nobody who’s got COVID-related distress is going to have their health insurance cut off,” Lamont said Tuesday. “I think the health insurers — frankly all the insurers, property and casualty as well — are stepping up.”

A spokesperson with the Hartford-based Aetna subsidiary of CVS Health pledged Tuesday the company will do its part.

“We are currently working with our employer customers in Connecticut to provide flexibility on payments for their premiums, given the unique and challenging circumstances presented by the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Aetna spokesperson Ethan Slavin. “We will comply with any mandates set forth by the (governor) and Connecticut

Insurance Department moving forward.”

President Donald Trump singled out Cigna this week for its commitment to pick up costs of care for the novel coronavirus, COVID-19, that its members would incur under their regular plans. The Bloomfield-based company is one of a half-dozen major health insurance carriers in Connecticut, with more than 340,000 members.

Anthem, Connecticut’s biggest health insurer with nearly 900,000 members, is likewise covering all out-of-pocket costs for coronavirus treatments, including deductibles. On Tuesday, Harvard Pilgrim Health Care became the latest to make a commitment to eliminating deductibles for coronavirus care, with the Massachusetts-based nonprofit the most recent carrier to make an entrance to the Connecticut market.

Deductibles are an integral part of what Cigna calls “consumerdriven” plans, designed to lower monthly premiums but at an extra cost at the point of care. Plan members pay a portion of medical costs before claim payments kick in. The company does not break out in its annual reports the amount of deductibles it receives as a percentage of overall revenues.

The emergence of high-deductible plans has been accompanied by health savings accounts that allow workers to shield a portion of their pay from income taxes to pay deductibles and other health costs they may face. Waterburybased Webster Financial is among the largest HSA account managers in the United States.

A task force formed a year ago by Lamont released in February a study of the impact of high-deductible plans on state residents. The group advocated for further study on a possible formula that would peg the cost of deductibles to members’ ability to pay.

In a November study, the Commonwealth Fund estimated the average deductible paid by Connecticut families and individuals in 2018 at $3,400, representing a 2 percent decline from two years earlier even as the U.S. average rose nearly 5 percent over the same stretch.