latimes.com/health/la-fi-insurance-regulation-20110901,0,5042939.story
Bill to regulate California health insurance rates is shelved
Los Angeles Assemblyman Mike Feuer doesn't have enough votes in the
California Senate to pass a rate-regulation bill that health insurance
companies, healthcare providers and others fought.
By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times
September 1, 2011
A bill that would allow California officials to regulate health insurance
rates for millions of consumers has died in the Legislature after forceful
lobbying campaigns by insurers, healthcare providers and other
groups.
Assemblyman Mike Feuer (D-Los Angeles) said he is pulling his
measure, AB52, because he could not muster a majority of votes in the state
Senate, the final stop in a months-long effort to increase state regulators'
authority over health insurance premiums.
Feuer said he is putting his
bill on hold until next year, when it can be taken up again. It marks the fourth
time in four years that Democratic lawmakers have failed to win support for
insurance oversight that would mirror the type of regulation already in place
for auto policies.
"Until a majority of the Senate supports giving the
state authority to reject excessive health insurance increases, millions of
Californians will continue to pay unreasonable rates or not be able to afford to
go to the doctor at all," Feuer said in a statement.
Feuer's measure ran
into a wall of opposition from health plans and groups representing hospitals,
doctors and the state's public employees retirement system, among
others.
Opponents argued that the bill would create a costly new state
bureaucracy. Healthcare providers also said they feared that artificially low
insurance rates would lead to reduced payments for their services, resulting in
less access to doctors and medical specialists.
"AB52 hit a major
roadblock because it's flawed," said Patrick Johnston, president of the
California Assn. of Health Plans. "It failed to address the underlying pressures
that drive up the cost of coverage."
Supporters said that putting the
measure on hold for now spelled bad news for cash-strapped consumers. One
advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog in Santa Monica, has announced plans to seek a
state ballot measure next year that would roll back health insurance rates and
toughen state oversight.
"Californians are paying way too much for health
insurance because insurance companies are unaccountable in this state," said
Doug Heller, the group's executive director. "It just shows the level of
influence insurance companies have in Sacramento."
duke.helfand@latimes.com
Copyright © 2011, Los Angeles Times