Democratic Senators Feinstein and Harkin are setting in motion a regulatory system to control health insurance premiums.
Under the bill, the federal government could regulate rates in states where state officials did not have “sufficient authority and capability” to do so.
At least some of the rest of us are puzzled premium caps aren't already part of health care legislation.
The White House offered a similar proposal in the weeks leading up to approval of the health care legislation last month. But it was omitted from the final measure, in part for procedural reasons.
The insurance industry doesn't much like it. Nor do its guardian angels.
Senator Lamar Alexander of Tennessee, the No. 3 Republican in the Senate, said: “Health insurance companies’ profits for one year equal about two days of health care spending in the United States. So even if we were to take away all the profits of the so-called greedy insurance companies, that would still leave 363 days a year when health care costs are expanding at a rate our country cannot afford.”
The "so-called greedy" insurance companies are making out like bandits, though.
Mr. Harkin interrupted the hearing to note that one of the nation’s largest insurers, UnitedHealth Group, had just reported that its first-quarter earnings had increased 21 percent, to $1.19 billion, surpassing Wall Street expectations.
Wall Street is grumbling.
Some securities analysts say they doubt that insurers can sustain such gains after major provisions of the new law take effect. ...NYT
