Wellpoint Backs Down On California Health Insurance Rates Portfolio.com (blog)
WellPoint Backs Down on California RatesInsurance companies are at war with at least three states over health rate increases. In California, one of the country's biggest insurers, WellPoint Inc., is backing down.
WellPoint's Anthem Blue Cross withdrew its plan to raise rates in the state and says it will resubmit the request to state authorities. Anthem proposed jacking small business and individual premiums up by double digits.
And in at least one plan, the insurer proposed raising rates by 39 percent. That particular rate increase became a national symbol of how insurance rates are spiraling out of control, and it gave Democrats ammunition as they pushed President Obama' health reform through.
California Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner, a Republican running for governor, says the application was flawed, citing math errors and other problems. Asked what the new rate requests should or will be, Poizner says he expects them to be much lower.
"You can count on this," the Associated Press quotes Poizner as saying. "A 25 percent average rate increase up to a maximum of 39 percent rate increase, that's not going to happen in California."
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