WILKES-BARRE — A coalition of community members and health care workers in Pennsylvania is calling for a public hearing to ensure transparency around Geisinger-Risant’s “Request for Modification” of its insurance conditions.

The coalition, alongside Action Together NEPA and SEIU Healthcare PA, is asking the Pennsylvania Insurance Department to hold the hearing and also ensure that parent corporation Kaiser Permanente uses its $82 billion in net worth to freeze health insurance costs for working people struggling to afford care. The group said this would help fulfill Kaiser’s commitment to invest at least $2 billion locally when it took over Geisinger through Risant in 2024.

In addition, the coalition is asking the Insurance Department to obtain clarity on exactly how Geisinger-Risant intends to use the $100 million it would gain access to from the modification. Coalition members say a freeze on insurance costs would help protect the health and economic security of the entire Northeast Pennsylvania region.

According to a news release from the coalition, Geisinger-Risant filed its request on Jan. 16, asking to reduce the amount its insurance companies are required to hold in reserve, called “risk-based capital.” As a condition of approving Kaiser’s original takeover of Geisinger through Risant, the coalition said the Insurance Department required Geisinger Health Plan to maintain risk-based capital of at least 350% and Geisinger Indemnity Insurance Co. and Geisinger Quality Options to maintain risk-based capital of at least 400% for five years. The coalition further claims that the corporations then have to maintain at least 350% until 2039. Geisinger’s modification request is to instead require all three insurance corporations to maintain a risk-based capital level of 300%, which would allow access to the $100 million.

Geisinger did not respond when asked for comment.

“Our request to the Pennsylvania Insurance Department is clear: we need transparency, clarity, and accountability from Geisinger-Risant and Kaiser, and we need a freeze on health care costs for the hardworking residents of Northeast Pennsylvania,” said Alisha Hoffman-Mirilovich, executive director of Action Together NEPA. “In the past decade, we’ve seen insurance and health care corporations become much bigger and more powerful, gaining a greater and greater ability to drive up prices. Working people are suffering right now, and the Insurance Department should step up to make sure that these huge corporations are using their vast resources to hold down costs, not continue raising them.”

Coalition members say that Geisinger-Risant and Kaiser have more than enough resources to freeze residents’ health insurance costs. They claim Geisinger had $9 billion in revenue, $47 million in profits, and $4.8 billion in net assets in 2025; Kaiser had $127 billion in revenue, $9.3 billion in profits, and $82 billion in net assets in 2025.

“The corporations have used their profits to lavish huge compensation packages on top executives,” the news release stated. “When the CEO of Geisinger transitioned to become the CEO of Risant, he had total compensation of over $14.2 million in 2024. Kaiser’s CEO had total compensation of over $12.9 million that year. Geisinger, Risant and Kaiser all have “nonprofit” status and are therefore exempt from paying property taxes to local communities to fund schools, law enforcement, housing, infrastructure and other needs.”

The news release further states that while executives have been raking in massive profits and pay, working people in Northeast Pennsylvania, where Geisinger-Risant is concentrated, have been hit hard by rising health care costs. According to a report, 80% of Northeastern and North Central Pennsylvania residents are worried about affording health care; 53% have gone without care due to cost; and 33% incurred medical debt, depleted savings, and/or sacrificed basic needs due to medical bills, the coalition news release states.

The news release also states:

• Nationally, while insurance premiums skyrocketed by 223% from 2000-2020, real wages only grew 15% from 1979-2022.

• Americans now pay an average of $6,850 for family health care premiums annually, with many paying much more.

• In Northeast Pennsylvania, Geisinger has dramatically raised some of its insurance premiums in recent years, including a more than 50% increase to its individual plans under the Affordable Care Act from 2023-2026.

• From 2023 to 2025, many Geisinger employees saw an increase of more than 33% in their out-of-pocket health care costs.

Coalition members say it is more important than ever before to freeze health insurance costs because nearly 600,000 Pennsylvania residents could lose health care coverage due to federal cuts in Medicaid and Affordable Care Act funding. Along with unaffordable health care, the overall cost of living — including for gas, groceries, housing, utilities, and childcare — has exploded, with inflation growing 25% since 2021, the coalition news release states.

Coalition members say that the rise in health care costs is being driven in large part by insurance and health care corporations’ relentless focus on profits and consolidation, which increases their market power. They say the Scranton-Wilkes Barre metro area, which has the largest population in Northeast Pennsylvania, is the most consolidated health insurance market in the state.

Coalition members worry that if the Insurance Department does not hold Geisinger-Risant accountable for its Request for Modification, the corporation could use the $100 million in additional funds to further consolidate its market power and keep increasing prices.

“As a nurse, I want to make sure both my community and all my fellow health care workers have access to affordable care, so we can be there for our patients,” said James Taylor, a registered nurse at Geisinger Wyoming Valley Medical Center in Wilkes-Barre, in the news release. “I see first-hand every day how our patient population needs more care, but is struggling to afford that care. I also see the sad irony of Geisinger employees coming to work every day to provide care to others, but having a tough time affording care for themselves and their families. The Pennsylvania Insurance Department needs to hold Geisinger-Risant and Kaiser accountable to freeze health insurance costs, so that patients and those of us who care for them have affordable care.”