This morning started with viewing pictures of my new twin granddaughters at their morning feeding. A wonderful start before I viewed the attached document from HHS. It appears to be another nail in the coffin of free enterprise. I cannot understand how the ability to exercise dictatorial control over a publicly owned corporation can happen under our Constitution and Bill of Rights. It appears that every day we see signs of random orders to control the vital aspects of American Capitalism. Clearly our President believes that to overcome the will of the American people, the abrupt CHANGE to socialism requires a Dictatorship. Maybe someone can tell me it is just my nightmare?
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Thursday, March 22, 2012
Health insurance rate hikes in nine states deemed excessive by HHS
Secretary Sebelius calls on insurance companies to drop unreasonable rate hikes
Health
and Human Services (HHS) Secretary Kathleen Sebelius announced today
that health insurance premium increases in nine states have been deemed
“unreasonable” under the rate review authority granted by the Affordable
Care Act.
"Thanks
to the Affordable Care Act consumers are no longer in the dark about
their health insurance premiums," said Secretary Sebelius. "Now,
insurance companies are required to justify rate increases of 10 percent
or higher. It’s time for these companies to immediately rescind these
unreasonable rate hikes, issue refunds to consumers or publicly explain
their refusal to do so."
Secretary
Sebelius also released a new report today showing that, six months
after HHS began reviewing proposed health insurance rate increases,
consumers are already seeing results. Since the rate review program took
effect in 2011, health insurers have proposed fewer double-digit rate
increases. Furthermore, more states have taken an active role in
reducing rate increases, and consumers in all states are getting
straight answers from their insurance companies when their rates are
raised by 10 percent or more. As of March 10, 2012, the justifications
and analysis of 186 double-digit rate increases for plans covering 1.3
million people have been posted at HealthCare.gov, resulting in a
decline in rate increases. According to the report, in the last quarter
of 2011 alone, states reported that premium increases dropped by 4.5
percent, and in states like Nevada, premiums actually declined.
In
the decisions announced today, HHS determined, after independent expert
review, that two insurance companies have proposed unreasonable health
insurance premium increases in nine states—Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana,
Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. The
excessive rate hikes would affect over 42,000 residents across these
nine states.
In
these nine states, the insurers have requested rate increases as high
as 24 percent. These increases were reviewed by independent experts to
determine whether they are reasonable. In this case, HHS determined
that the rate increases were unreasonable, because the insurer would be
spending a low percentage of premium dollars on actual medical care and
quality improvements, and because the justifications were based on
unreasonable assumptions.
Most
rates are reviewed by states and many states have the authority to
reject unreasonable premium increases. Since the passage of the health
care law, the number of states with this authority increased from 30 to
37, with several states extending existing “prior authority” to new
markets.
The report released today shows that:
* States like Texas, Kentucky, Nevada and Indiana are reporting fewer requests for rate increases over 10 percent.
* States like California, New York, Oregon, and many others, have proactively lowered rate increases for their residents.
* The
rate review program has made insurance companies explain their
increases, and more than 180 have been posted publicly and are open for
consumer comment on companyprofiles.healthcare.gov
This
initiative is one of many in the health care law to ensure that
insurance companies play by the rules, prohibiting them from dropping
coverage when a person gets sick, billing consumers into bankruptcy
through annual or lifetime limits, and, soon, discriminating against
anyone with a pre-existing condition.
Information on the specific determinations made today is available at: http://companyprofiles.
The rate review report released today is available at: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/
General information about rate review is available at: http://www.healthcare.gov/law/
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