Small Business Group Slams Latest Health Insurance Rate Hike

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Patrick Connor, Washington State Director, patrick.connor@nfib.org,
or Tony Malandra, Senior Media Manager, anthony.malandra@nfib.org

OLYMPIA, Wash., Nov. 20, 2025—As NFIB, the state’s leading small business advocacy association, was submitting written comments in advance of testifying before the state’s Health Care Cost Transparency Board about health care affordability, the Insurance Commissioner slipped an early Christmas gift under the tree for the state’s largest insurance companies, and coal into small-business owners’ stockings.

In its press release, the Office of the Insurance Commissioner (OIC) claimed it had approved an average 12.8% health insurance rate increase to nine insurers who offer coverage to small businesses. But that was just shiny wrapping paper. Those insurers, collectively, had asked for a 9.5% average raise for 2026. A closer look at the fine print tells a different, darker story.

“It is stunning and outrageous that nearly half the people covered by small-business health plans will see their rates jump more than 15% next year, particularly when the approved rate is 56% more than the 9.9% that particular insurance company requested,” said Patrick Connor state director for NFIB in Washington. “It is even more egregious knowing that insurer is sitting on nearly $1.5 billion in cash under its mattress—over and above reserves needed to cover the future cost of all its existing claims—which the Insurance Commission could have considered, but once again chose not to do so.”

The nine health plans in the small group market are owned by just four insurance companies: Cambia, which counts Asuris and Regence products among its offerings, and Kaiser, with three plans each; Premera, with two; and out-of-state-giant UnitedHealth Insurance Company, which offers just one plan to small businesses in our state.

Interestingly, the three insurers with deep roots in the Washington health insurance market were all gifted more than requested. Cambia received 177% of what it wanted. Premera, 126.5%, and Kaiser (which acquired Seattle-based Group Health in 2017), 116% more than requested. Minnesota-based UnitedHealth Care was left out of the largess, only getting exactly what it asked for.

“When a regulatory agency approves astoundingly higher rates than insurers requested, questions must be asked: What changed between when the rate requests were filed and approved? What faults did the OIC find in the insurers’ own actuarial analysis, upon which their rate requests were based? How is it conscionable for state regulators to increase prices 30% on the very consumers that agency was created to protect?,” Connor added.

Keep up with the latest Washington state small business news at www.nfib.com or on X @NFIB_WA or on Facebook@NFIB.WA

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For over 80 years, NFIB has been advocating on behalf of America’s small and independent business owners, both in Washington, D.C., and in all 50 state capitals. NFIB is a nonprofit, nonpartisan, and member-driven association. Since our founding in 1943, NFIB has been exclusively dedicated to small and independent businesses and remains so today. For more information, please visit nfib.com.

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