26K-plus Marylanders could see insurance hikes under UnitedHealthcare

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UnitedHealthcare’s requests to increase premiums for tens of thousands of customers midyear are facing pushback in Maryland.

According to the Maryland Insurance Administration website, the insurer sent four requests for rate changes in the small group market under the Affordable Care Act.

If approved, the increases would impact customers of the UnitedHealthcare Insurance Company, MAMSI Life and Health Insurance Company, Optimum Choice Inc. and UnitedHealthcare of the Mid-Atlantic Inc. If approved by the state’s insurance administration, 26,199 people would face an average year-over-year rate increase of 17.6% on Oct. 1.

“Enough is enough,” Dr. Eric Wargotz, president of the Maryland State Medical Society, wrote in a May 12 letter to Maryland Insurance Commissioner Marie Grant. “Insurers should not be permitted to continue raising premiums with minimal accountability for access to health care services.”

During a virtual rate hearing two days later, Grant said the currently approved average increase set to go into effect in October is 9.4%.

“Maryland’s rate review law provides that only those rates approved by the insurance commissioner can be charged to policy holders, so before that approval, all filings need to undergo a comprehensive analysis by our actuarial team of the carrier’s statistics and assumptions, and public comments are considered part of that process,” Grant said. 

Brad Boban, the chief actuary at the administration, said quarterly rate increases “are generally pre-filed” annually by carriers.

In defense of the requested increase, Daniel Akier, an actuary for UnitedHealthcare, said the approved rate increase for 2026 was based on financial data in calendar year 2024 and that the proposal for Oct. 1 is rooted in “updated experience” from the fourth fiscal quarter of 2024 through the third quarter of 2025.

According to Akier, UnitedHealthcare began to see upward pressures emerge for medical trends during the rate review for its 2026 filings, which occurred across spring and summer 2025. Some of the most impacted services include acute inpatient, lab pathology, radiology, infusion and radiation therapy.

“These pressures on trends continued through 2025 and even into our emerging 2026 experiences, not showing any moderation,” Akier said, noting that this is impacting all the markets that UnitedHealthcare serves. “Our ’24-’25 trends are the highest we have seen nationally.”

Asked why UnitedHealthcare is seeking to change the rate by October rather than waiting until the beginning of 2027, Akier said the company had been initially planning to file for a July 1, 2026, rate change, but the “timing wouldn’t have worked.”

“We put in a 10/1 filing to get ahead of it,” he said.

In his letter to Grant, Wargotz said UnitedHealthcare reported earnings “well above expectations” for the first quarter of 2026, causing the company to raise its adjusted earnings outlook from $17.75 per share to $18.25. Revenue in the first quarter also exceeded the company’s expectations, he wrote, increasing from the anticipated $109.57 billion to $111.72 billion. 

Wargotz additionally said UnitedHealthcare’s medical benefit ratio declined from 84.8% to 83.9%, “indicating that UnitedHealthcare is spending less on actual patient care while collecting more in premiums from consumers.”

“This trend aligns with the complaints MedChi routinely receives from physicians regarding systemic delays and denials of care,” Wargotz wrote.

UnitedHealthcare did not respond to a request for comment.

Craig Ey, a Maryland Insurance Administration spokesperson, said the agency cannot comment during the rate review process.

During the meeting, Boban said actuaries at the Maryland Insurance Administration will “be ready with a recommendation relatively soon” — likely before June 1, when rate proposals for January 2027 are due.