Health Insurers in New York have just submitted requests to state regulators for what they want to charge as monthly premiums in 2019 for people who buy their own coverage or who operate a small business.  They are now being reviewed by the State Dept. of Financial Services (DFS) to see if they are justified.  DFS typically rolls them back some before OKing them. 

People who have such coverage should have recently received letters from their insurers informing them of their requests, and how they can comment back to DFS.  The deadline is the end of this month.

Co-Host Mark Hannay interviews Amanda Dunker, Health Policy Associate with the Community Service Society of New York, about what insurers are asking for and why, how consumers can challenge their requests, what's actually driving premium increases, and what the state can do more broadly to keep them from going up so much so fast.