Spokane7
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January 27, 2011 in City
Kreidler wants to limit health-plan rate hikes
Washington state’s top insurance regulator seeks new authority to limit health insurance rate increases among the largest carriers and make insurance rates open to public review.
Insurance Commissioner Mike Kreidler announced a package of legislative proposals Thursday.
One bill seeks authority to review rates in the individual health insurance market, policies that are often sold to people who do not have access to employer-sponsored plans.
Another proposal would make all health insurance rate filings public, a move that would release details of insurance company prices.
A third proposal would limit rate increases charged by the state’s large nonprofit insurers such as Premera Blue Cross, Regence Blue Shield and Group Health Cooperative, which have collected a combined $2.4 billion in surpluses.
Kreidler and critics of the big insurers have argued that those companies – which operate as nonprofit organizations — have hoarded the money, which is in excess what they expect to pay out in claims.
The insurers have argued that the surpluses amount to emergency funds to offset what would be tremendous expenses in the case of something like a flu pandemic.
Parishes giving $1.5 million toward settling sex cases 
hawken on January 27 at 1:34 p.m.
The Health Care fiasco has no limits. The Obama administration has now given almost 800 waivers to unions and business relating to the Obama boondoggle. It’s far too expensive for them, so they ask for a waiver. The Obamacare house of cards is falling apart even more.
Put tort reform in place, allow across state line competition between those whom sell health care insurance, and the rates will come down.
As long as we are restrained to purchase health care within state lines, premiums will continue to go up, lacking free market competition. Across state line competition is one of the keys.
The Democrat controlled US house and senate of the last two years, blocked this Republican plan.
Now there’s a new sheriff in town,,,, the Republican House and an increased number of Republicans in the Senate.
homers on January 27 at 3:12 p.m.
hawken’s comments are not totally accurate… there have been some waivers granted, but this does not mean the company getting the waiver does not have to comply – it is simply an extension of time to come into compliane. For factual info go alway go to Factcheck.org. For this particular issue Factcheck shows the following info:
Q: Has the Obama administration allowed corporations to “opt out” of the new health care law?
A: No. The government has granted more than 200 waivers, but these merely give companies a temporary delay before being required to improve the coverage of cheap, bare-bones plans they currently offer.
For more factual details on this go to:
http://factcheck.org/2010/12/health-care-law-waivers/
johnclarke on January 27 at 3:20 p.m.
Hawken, kindly provide evidence of the 800 waivers. BTW the across state lines theory was looked at by the CBO in 2005 (if you don’t have a calender, that was when Bush was in office)
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=6639&type=0
The CBO does not think much of that idea mainly due to the cost and problem associated with regulation. The insurance companies themselves are the reason that insurance is regulated state to state, they like it that way. If you want sell something complex like health insurance across state lines, then what you will end up with is insurers clustering in states with favorable (to their profits) regulation. The only way to avoid this clustering problem, which btw actually happened in the credit card industry and was a disaster - is centralized regulation to ensure the insurance product being sold meets reasonable guidelines. I think they already have that - it’s called (wait for it) Medicare, which is considered a model of efficiency due it’s low overhead. You are probably on Medicare, so I’ll bet you know that. Regardless, without central regulation that across state lines thing is a red herring.
ipowerpilotcom on January 27 at 3:41 p.m.
It’s about time they reveal the cost of dental care. There is a reason 100M adult Americans don’t have dental insurance. It isn’t worth it. The ADA says the typical family saves $1100 a year with it. The premiums are $1300 to $1600 a year. City, county and state governments supply this taxpayer funded insurance to employees. The employee pays 15% of the premium at the state level and very little, if any, at city and county levels.
The average cost for these govt dental programs is $1344 a year.
Taxpayers are picking up the tab here.
A recent Health and Human Services study claims 68% of the people who have this taxpayer sponsored insurance don’t even go to the dentist in any given year. Waste of money.
Fee for Service dental is comparable to dental insurance and would save at least $1000 per year per family. The state has 65K active employees and 90K retired, with a pension system that is upside down. Switching would save $155M a year.
eagleproducer on January 27 at 3:51 p.m.
Wow, this state agency is going to FINALLY do its job?
johnclarke on January 27 at 3:53 p.m.
“hawken’s comments are not totally accurate”
ha ha Homers, you are quite nice. I would say that “completely inaccurate” would be the case. 800 waivers ! Ah-hem.
Yeah powerpilot, Dental care is a rip off. No one pays attention to that because of the bigger issue of health care. I get my major work done in Mexico.
homers on January 27 at 3:58 p.m.
For those who may be wondering, factcheck.org is an unbiased, non-partisan website and they point out the mis-statements and erroneous info put out by BOTH Dems and GOP-ers.
Go to Factcheck.org and on the main page you will see articles “factchecking” both Obama’s SOTU speech as well as the responses of Ryan and Bachmann – plenty or errors, wrong statements, and falsehoods in all 3 presentations ….very interesting reading.
Don’t believe everything you see/hear on EITHER Fox or MSNBC !!
eagleproducer on January 27 at 4:00 p.m.
Always nice to see Hawken turn into Mr. Crickets once his easily debunked lies are revealed to the light of day. In this case factcheck.org.
If tort reform is the answer to all ills, why aren’t premiums in states like Texas, who’ve adopted tort reform, lower? Texas has become a state with one of the the highest rates of Medicare reimbursement since tort reform was touted as the magic elixir for health care costs. Most estimates place malpractice insurance costs at less than 2% of total health care related costs. The Hawken’s of the world know it is an insignificant factor and their real desire is to limit citizen’s access to due process.
http://www.cbo.gov/doc.cfm?index=4968&type=0
johnclarke on January 27 at 4:10 p.m.
Oh don’t worry homers, right wingers have an excuse for factcheck.org. That will be coming next.
robodrill on January 27 at 4:18 p.m.
Please tell me that part of the constitution which delegates to the congress the expressed power to regulate commerce within states.
Regulating interstate commerce means making it regular, ie, no tarrifs, no favoring one state over another, no using state borders for committing fraud. Even that clause does not allow price controls.
Where is this power coming from, except brute force.
Can the congress exercise any power it votes itself? If that were true, why did we bother to leave England, that was the system we had before the revoluition.
johnclarke on January 27 at 4:21 p.m.
I’m betting the President thought of that, considering he used to teach constitutional law.
MrNatural on January 27 at 4:23 p.m.
…Hmmm…Sounds like a good idea Mr. Kreidler…as for the flu pandemic excuse…I’m sure the insurance companies (provided that they have any personnel left to process claims) would find a way to bail and pass a catastrophic event like that on to the governments shoulders…
hawken on January 27 at 4:27 p.m.
Here you go…. left wingers…… You really should become more informed. But, then, that would make you a conservative
“As of today, a total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011.”
http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html
That’s the US Dept of Health and Human Services. They are all itemized.
Oh yea,,,, I said about 800. One does have to give time for the bureaucrats to add the ever increasing numbers on their Chinese made abacus. Last week it was reportedly 222 unions and business that got waivers. I think the “about 800” qualifies as a “spike” in waivers….. more to come….
soccermomsusie on January 27 at 4:51 p.m.
This is outrageous. Insurance companies should charge us whatever they want. This is the Free Market - The Invisible Hand of the Almighty!!!
Granted, medical insurance companies are the only companies exempt from antitrust laws, but that is OK because they are good people. I have many of their free post-it-notes and ballpoint pens to prove that.
Yes, let people shop across state lines. This kind of thinking is why all the credit card companies moved to Delaware - the Freest of the Free! Credit card companies are a great example for health care reform and will help out the poor insurance companies’ bottom line.
Tort reform would be welcome too. Studies show that it would have no effect on malpractice rates but I would like it because it would stick it to the trial lawyers and assert corporation’s authority over us - the way it is supposed to be! Beside, I want to know how the set amount I am really worth if a corporation kills me. I bet I am worth a ton!!!
HEAR OUR VOICE!!!!
PhiltheBibliophil on January 27 at 5:16 p.m.
Insurance companies are scum sucking bottom feeders who get positively orgasmic as they sit in their Death Panel chambers and throw darts to see who lives and who dies!
Bruce (aka thatoneguy) on January 27 at 5:27 p.m.
I heart soccermomsusie. <3<3<3
dataxman on January 27 at 6:00 p.m.
soccermomsusie - baseball, unions, public utilities, military contractors and hospitals are also exempt from antitrust laws
Credit card companies all moved to South Dakota starting in 1978
Tort reform will reduce the level of defensive medicine, which, according to a 2010 WSJ article, cost $29 billion annually
Other than that, nice rant…
homers on January 27 at 6:15 p.m.
sorry for the length of this, but it’s important..Here is full info from hawken’s site above.. Please read carefully – these are not evidence of ” It’s far too expensive for them, so they ask for a waiver. The Obamacare house of cards is falling apart even more.” as asserted by hawken… These are temporary waivers that make perfectly good sense and the feds are being diligent to protect the workers covered by these plans – that is a good thing (as Martha Stewart would say)
“Waivers only last for one year and are only available if the plan certifies that a waiver is necessary to prevent either a large increase in premiums or a significant decrease in access to coverage. In addition, enrollees must be informed that their plan does not meet the requirements of the Affordable Care Act. No other provision of the Affordable Care Act is affected by these waivers: they only apply to the annual limit policy.”
As of today, a total of 733 waivers have been granted for 2011. Key facts about annual limits waivers:
There was an increase in the number of applications received at the end of 2010 because December 1 was the final day to apply for a waiver for a plan or policy year that begins on January 1 – as many plans do. Over 500 waivers were granted in December. While the number of approved waivers increased by more than 200 percent, the total number of enrollees in plans receiving waivers has increased by only 48 percent since the previous posting.
Of all the waivers granted to date:
Employment-Based Coverage: The vast majority – 712 plans representing 97 percent of all waivers – were granted to health plans that are employment-related.
Self-Insured Employer Plans Applicants: Employer-based health plans received most of the waivers – 359.
Collectively-Bargained Employer-Based Plan Applicants: Most of the other health plans receiving waivers are multi-employer health funds created by a collective bargaining agreement between a union and two or more employers, pursuant to the Taft-Hartley Act. These “union plans” are employment based group health plans and operate for the sole benefit of workers. They tend to be larger than other typical group health plans because they cover multiple employers. There are also single-employer union plans that have received a waiver. In total, 182 collectively-bargained plans have received waivers.
Health Reimbursement Arrangements (HRAs): HRAs are employer-funded group health plans where employees are reimbursed tax-free for qualified medical expenses up to a maximum dollar amount for a coverage period. In total, HHS has approved 171 applications for waivers for HRAs.
Health Insurers: Sixteen waivers were granted to health insurers, which can apply for a waiver for multiple mini-med products sold to employers or individuals.
State Governments: Four waivers have gone to State governments. States may apply for a waiver of the restricted annual limits on behalf of issuers of state-mandated policies if state law required the policies to be offered by the issuers prior to September 23, 2010.
The number of enrollees in plans with annual limits waivers is 2.1 million, representing only about 1 percent of all Americans who have private health insurance today.”
johnclarke on January 27 at 6:26 p.m.
I know. I have this hope that susie is super hot, but we’ll never know.
Ok, I have to say - Hawken was nearly right and provided a link to actual facts. However, the total of people granted waivers (because they have Health Care) is about how many? Less than 2,300,000. Population of the US? 311,965,000. So, about .007% of the US have been granted a waiver because they would lose access to their current health plan.
Dazzeetrader11 on January 27 at 6:48 p.m.
http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html
http://cnsnews.com/news/article/obamacare-waivers-politicized-should-be#
johnclarke on January 27 at 7:16 p.m.
Congress Will Probe Special Exemptions to Health-Care Law That Obama Administration Gave Select Unions and Businesses, Says Republican Senator
Republicans are doing what ? Investigating Democrats ? Say it ain’t so !!
johnclarke on January 27 at 7:25 p.m.
“Waivers only last for one year and are only available if the plan certifies that a waiver is necessary to prevent either a large increase in premiums or a significant decrease in access to coverage. ”
http://www.hhs.gov/ociio/regulations/approved_applications_for_waiver.html
Thanks for that link Daisy or Hawken. I think I shall call you Dawken. How dat ?
keciaewers on January 29 at 11:13 p.m.
I think that health care reform is a great idea. I have type 1 diabetes and for me to get insurance, it was a nightmare until I found “Wise Health Insurance” search for them online and you can get affordable health insurance instantly.