Word: rates
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
Bolstering the argument that Anthem Blue Cross will likely be able to proceed with its massive rate hikes is the fact that these kinds of increases are nothing new. The company made news for similar double-digit spikes in 2005, for example, and a recent study found that average individual insurance premiums in California increased 23% between 2002 and 2006, even as the actuarial value of these plans dropped considerably. (This means consumers are paying more for less coverage than before...
Regardless of what actually happens with Anthem Blue Cross's rate increases, the news has served as a useful tool for an Administration now making perhaps its hardest and last push for federal health care reform. After the Los Angeles Times broke the Anthem Blue Cross story, Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius lambasted the company. First she publicly asked it to justify the increases, and when the company offered a five-page explanation, she responded by saying, "It remains difficult to understand how a company that made $2.7 billion in the last quarter of 2009 alone can justify...
Sebelius also released a report Thursday on proposed rate increases in six other states. And three days after launching his new Twitter feed, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs used the tool to link to news coverage about the Anthem Blue Cross kerfuffle. "BIG insurance rate increases and MORE coming," wrote Gibbs, who said that such increases would serve as the "backdrop" for a bipartisan health care summit scheduled for Feb. 25. There, the Democrats will argue that without a massive, federal overhaul of the health care system and insurance market, costs will continue to rise dramatically and unpredictably...
Still, it's true that the Anthem Blue Cross rate hike is a perfect example of why the current individual insurance market is unsustainable. After all, the justifications the company provides for why its rates have to increase do make sense. In a bad economy, the people most 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...
Under the Democratic health care reform plans, the individual insurance market would be far less volatile. Insurers would be prohibited from basing rates on health status, and rate increases would be transparent and regulated through national or state-based exchanges. Plus, with an individual mandate, most healthy individuals would be compelled to maintain coverage, diffusing risk throughout a larger pool. (Watch TIME's video "Uninsured Again...