Word: california
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...good news, relatively speaking, is that these loans are very concentrated: about 75% of all option ARMs were written in California, Florida, Arizona and Nevada, with the vast majority of those in California. In that way, the option-ARM problem is localized. People living in Phoenix, Las Vegas and California's Inland Empire, which have high concentrations of option ARMs, can expect to see renewed downward pressure on home prices. But the trend won't spread nationally...
...political ramifications of the Anthem Blue Cross story don't end at the Beltway. Steve Poizner, the California insurance commissioner who has been aggressively pursuing Anthem, is running for governor, though he is trailing far behind fellow GOP candidate (and former eBay CEO) Meg Whitman. Poizner says he supports reform of the U.S. health care system but generally opposes the Democratic House and Senate bills. Dave Jones, a Democratic state assemblyman, is running to replace Poizner in the commissioner's office on a platform of changing California law to require health insurers to get state approval before increasing rates...
...likely to cancel their health insurance are healthy people; this leaves the remaining so-called risk pool less healthy, and therefore more expensive to insure. (Waxman, in a follow-up letter to WellPoint, asked the company to explain why data show that it had more individually insured customers in California in 2009 than in 2008. But it's not just the total number of customers that determines rates in a risk pool - the health of those customers also matters. It's also not surprising that more people are enrolling in individual coverage with the unemployment rate high and people losing...
...Anthem Blue Cross story in California is far from unique. According to the Associated Press, Maine, Oregon and Kansas are among states where consumers buying individual policies on the open market may see double-digit rate increases in 2010. Sandy Praeger, the Kansas insurance commissioner and head of the managed-care committee of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners, said she agrees with others that Anthem Blue Cross is probably operating within the law in proposing its California rate hikes. "I thought the explanation made perfect sense," says Praeger. "In this job climate, if people are young and healthy, they...
Daveed Kapoor, 30, a healthy, self-employed resident of Los Angeles, is one of California's 700,000 individually insured Anthem Blue Cross customers. Since he bought his policy in 2005, he has seen his premiums rise dramatically. Just last year, his monthly rate jumped from $361 to $495, a 27% increase. Kapoor, who pays his premiums via automatic debit from his bank account, did not receive a notice about the 2009 hike and didn't realize it had happened until reviewing his bank statements several months later. This year's hike - to $665 - may be too much...