Posted on 09/10/2010 7:23:48 AM PDT by reaganaut1
The Obama administration on Thursday told health insurers that it will track those who enact "unjustified" rate increases linked to the health overhaul and may block those companies from a new marketplace for insurance coverage.
Kathleen Sebelius, secretary of Health and Human Services, issued the warning in a letter to Karen Ignagni, the insurance industry's top lobbyist.
Ms. Sebelius said some insurers were notifying enrollees that their insurance premiums will increase next year as a result of the law's new benefits.
The Wall Street Journal reported Wednesday that some carriers are asking for total premium hikes topping 20% starting this month, and the carriers are attributing one to nine percentage points of the increases to new benefit mandates in the law.
"There will be zero tolerance for this type of misinformation and unjustified rate increases," Ms. Sebelius wrote. "We will not stand idly by as insurers blame their premium hikes and increased profits on the requirement that they provide consumers with basic protections."
Ms. Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said: "It's a basic law of economics that additional benefits incur additional costs, and the impact on premiums depends on the type and amount of coverage policyholders had before." She attributed rising premiums to the higher price of medical services and the impact of younger and healthier people dropping their insurance during the weak economy, as well as the additional benefits required under the new law.
Beginning Sept. 23 or later, many new plans for individuals and small employers must begin letting children stay on their parents' insurance policies until age 26. These plans also face a requirement to eliminate co-payments for preventive care, give coverage to children regardless of pre-existing medical conditions and eliminate lifetime coverage caps.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
we’ll get you, and your little dog too...
thugs
Translation: “Tell the public the truth about ObammaCare and Rahm will make sure you sleep with the fishes!”
NAZI’s did the same thing to private business when they came in to power.
“boot to the throat”
Imo, she is creating policy that discriminates against insurers and deprives them of income, without the benefit of an enabling law.
Simply based on the new requirements for all kinds of preventive care without any copays, the insurers will have to raise their rates, all things being equal. Then they are bullied about it, told they will be left out of the future of the industry. I pray that this 0bamacare disaster can be repealed before too much damage is done.
Ayn Rand knew these guys.
Don’t worry. Insurers will simply drop customers if they cannot operate at a profit.
Insurance is regulated by State Insurance Commissioners.
Another usurpation by the Federal Government?
So one of Obama’s Soviet Commissars has spoken. What’s next? The gulags? What a bunch of gangsters that inhabit the WH. Outrageous!!!!!!!!!!
“shut up and take it.”
Tnx,
Barky.
Did they really think that eliminating the pre-existing condition restrictions was going to decrease risk? Come on!
Some of the largest employers in the US are health insurers. Let's threaten and attack them. Typical of this regime.
Wow, veiled threat from Uncle Sugar.
I don’t even recognize my own country any longer.
The Obama administration obviously hasn’t read the bill and if they did, they didn’t understand it. They don’t understand the relationship between Income, Expenses, and Profit.”
1. They clearly didn’t read the bill. Queen Nancy would not give them the bill to read—& it was over 2500 pages.
2. Queen Nancy clearly told us all that ‘we would find out what was in the bill AFTER it was passed”. Hardly a transparent transaction in this Congress.
3. The number of Congress members who have any hands-on kind of business experience running a company & signing payroll checks every payday is minimal.
The situation will never improve until the voters start electing people who are NOT attorneys & find candidates who have business backgrounds.
It is interesting to me that while Congress is overwhelmingly occupied by attorneys, crime & appropriate punishment in the country is in big trouble. Gangs—drugs—welfare fraud—tax fraud—corruption at the highest levels continues to get worse. Los Angeles Mayor tells us that his city is safer than it was in the 70’s. I lived there in the 70’s. He is a LIAR.
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