A controversial insurance bill has been approved by the California Assembly. Next, the bill must be passed by the state Senate, and then signed by the Governor. If this happens, then it will become a law that gives California state regulators the power to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes. The bill still has a way to go, but it is heading in the right direction, in my opinion. Currently, regulators in California, including the California Insurance Commissioner, lack the legal power to prevent insurance companies from imposing unreasonable rate hikes on their customers. They do have the legal right … Continue reading →

A bill is being considered by lawmakers in California that could, if passed, prevent insurance companies that sell health insurance from forcing unreasonable rate increases on their customers. It would give state regulators the power they need to stop that from happening. Some insurance groups are unhappy about this possibility. Last year, Anthem Blue Cross and Blue Shield of California said that it was planning on increasing the cost of its customer’s health insurance premiums by 59%. This provoked outrage not only in the customers of this insurance company, but also in insurance regulators in California. Unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner … Continue reading →

Blue Shield of California, the largest nonprofit health insurance company in the state, has finally released information about how much salary its highest paid executives make. The information was handed to California’s Insurance Commissioner, as required by new laws that are designed to keep the cost of health care under control. New state laws in California require insurance companies who are intending to raise their rates to file certain kinds of documents with the Insurance Commissioner of California. This is so the Insurance Commissioner can use that data to determine if a proposed rate hike is reasonable, or unreasonable. Although … Continue reading →

The insurance commissioner for the state of Washington, Mike Kreidler, is very disappointed with the Premera Blue Cross insurance company. There is a proposal to make information on health insurance rates available to the public soon. Of the insurance companies who operate in Washington, only Premera Blue Cross is resisting this proposed legislation. It makes me wonder what, exactly, it is that they don’t want the public to know about. There is a proposal called ESHB 1220 in Washington. Insurance commissioner Kreidler was getting a lot of calls from consumers who were upset when their health insurance costs increased. In … Continue reading →

Blue Shield Insurance has agreed to postpone implementing the huge rate increase it was planning on forcing upon it’s customers in California, at least for a little while longer. This will give the California Insurance Commissioner time to review the proposed rate increase. Unfortunately, the Insurance Commissioner of California doesn’t actually have the authority to stop Blue Shield from increasing it’s rates. Blue Shield has said that the 59% rate increase was necessary because their costs are rising quickly. They have said that many providers of health care have increased their costs, which, one would assume could mean that Blue … Continue reading →

Conseco Life Insurance was intending to triple the cost of its premiums. This increase would affect around 50,000 people who had purchased life insurance from that company. A recent ruling by a federal court in California has prevented Conseco Life Insurance from doing so. Recently, Blue Shield, another insurance company, was in the news when it announced that it would be raising the cost of it’s health insurance premiums by 59%. Blue Shield gave its customers only about two months warning of this impending change. Clearly, this big increase in the price of health insurance would be a burden for … Continue reading →