Three state lawmakers, including Senate President Pro Tempore Joe Scarnati, R-Brockway, are slamming the state’s Insurance Commissioner Teresa Miller for approving more expensive health insurance premiums that will impact thousands of residents across the state.

“Unsurprisingly, the approved rates are a dramatic increase over the last year, proving that whatever else you can call the Affordable Care Act, you can’t call it affordable. We were, however, surprised that the Commissioner (Teresa Miller) established rate increases that, in many cases, greatly exceed the already-hefty increases you sought,” said Scarnati, Majority Leader Jake Corman and Banking and Insurance Chairman Don White in a Oct. 28 letter addressed to Pennsylvania Health Insurers.

But Pennsylvania Insurance Department Deputy Press Secretary Ali Fogarty said that Miller has been “very transparent about the issues the market faced.”

She continued, “Pennsylvania lost two marketplace insurers this year, causing concern among remaining insurers about absorbing the additional consumers. Commissioner Miller worked with these insurers to make sure that all Pennsylvanians would continue to have access to plans through Healthcare.gov so they can receive subsidies if they are eligible. This has been discussed multiple times since announcing rates, and none of the senators who signed this letter ever asked the Insurance Department about the issue.”

In the letter, the state senators are advocating that any rate higher than what had been requested be turned down.

“Those paying premiums should not have to pay a penny more than you sought,” the men said.  

The middle- and lower-income wage earners are trapped with the significantly increased rates, and these same people have been led into believing health insurance is affordable through the Affordable Care Act, the senators said.

“The Commissioner’s unprecedented decision to not only approve, but increase, your requested rates exacerbates the unacceptable choice the ACA has imposed on working families –– either pay for health insurance that is anything but ‘affordable’ or face a punitive federal tax,” the men said. “Last year, the Insurance Commissioner cut the rates many health insurers requested, boasting with considerable fanfare that the administration was saving consumers over $80 million.”

This year is a different story, the men indicated.

“This year, she and the administration have done a 180, although without the same fanfare, doubling down on your requested rate increases — and still without any plan or ideas to make health insurance affordable,” the senators said in a letter. “This roller-coaster of rate regulation seems based more on political expediency than holding down the cost of health care and health insurance in any stable and sustainable way.”

The senators said that consumers ought to be charged for insurance based on actuarial soundness rather than on political timing.

“The federal Department of Health and Human Services recently found that approximately 111,000 Pennsylvanians who currently buy insurance off-exchange could receive subsidies if they purchased a plan from the exchange, so we are strongly encouraging consumers to explore plans on Healthcare.gov and see if they are eligible for this financial assistance that can help bring down their monthly costs,” Fogarty said.

Individuals can check out health care options at HealthCare.gov.