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One of the Affordable Care Acts most important consumer protection provisions requires health insurers spend at least 80 percent of premium dollars on actual medical care, not wasteful administration, marketing or executive pay and bonuses.
But yesterday, the National Association of Insurance Commissioners (NAIC) endorsed a Big Insurers-backed plan to weaken the law when?its members?voted to urge Congress and the Obama administration to exempt brokers? fees from the calculation?known as medical loss ratios?used to determine a company?s premium total.
Sen. Jay Rockefeller (D. W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Commerce, Science and Transportation Committee, says exempting those fees would allow insurance companies to retain billions of dollars that the health care reform law requires then to give back to consumers in the form of rebates or lower premiums. Click here for a letter Rockefeller sent to the NAIC prior to yesterday?s vote. Last year the NAIC defeated a similar effort.
Ethan Rome, executive director for Health Care for America Now (HCAN), says the commission?s action could cost consumers $1.2 billion.
The commissioners who supported this proposal are tone-deaf to the skyrocketing health premium costs of average Americans. Commissioners said that of the many thousands of messages they received from consumers, not a single one supported the resolution.
He urged Congress and the administration to ?dismiss this anti-consumer action, which would weaken the law that holds insurance companies accountable and puts a check on bloated CEO pay and record insurance company profits.?
You can make your voice heard by calling your state insurance commissioner and telling him or her that bowing to big health insurers hurts working families. Insurance commissioners from the following 26 states voted to side with big health insurers:
Alabama, Alaska, Arkansas, Delaware, Florida, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Michigan, Mississippi, Nebraska, Nevada, New Hampshire, New Jersey, North Carolina, North Dakota, Ohio, Oklahoma, Pennsylvania, South Carolina, Tennessee, Utah, Wyoming and American Samoa.
These 20 commissioners voted ?No??Arizona, California, Colorado, Connecticut, District of Columbia, Hawaii, Illinois, Kansas, Maryland, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Missouri, New York, Oregon, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, West Virginia, the Mariana Islands and Puerto Rico.
The state insurance commissioners from Maine, Montana, South Dakota, Texas and Virginia abstained. Not present or not voting were commissioners from Iowa, New Mexico and Wisconsin.
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