Health Insurers Are Spending Millions to Defeat California’s Proposition 45

[marmar]

from truthdig:


Health Insurers Are Spending Millions to Defeat California’s Proposition 45

Posted on Oct 7, 2014
By Bill Boyarsky


From the start, even fans recognized that one of Obamacare’s great weaknesses was its failure to regulate insurance rates. Washington orders you to buy insurance, but can’t police how insurance companies raise your rates, a decision that made the Affordable Care Act a big moneymaker for the insurance industry.

Now, determined to preserve and increase profits, the industry is waging a fierce and expensive battle against a ballot initiative in California that would regulate insurance premiums. The vote in November has national significance. California, according to the Insurance Journal, is the largest insurance market in the country and what happens there politically and economically can be felt elsewhere in the country. Certainly, the fate of the measure, Proposition 45, is likely to have a great impact on consumer advocates’ efforts to improve Obamacare.

The failure to impose nationwide regulation was a result of the messy deals and compromises that accompanied the Affordable Care Act’s perilous journey through Congress.

Advocates of decent health care favored government health insurance. When insurance industry opposition killed that plan, called “single-payer,” those fighting for a strong health care system fell back on the “public option,” basically a government-run health insurance agency that would compete with private companies and keep rates down. That failed too. So finally, consumer advocates, battered by defeats, proposed federal regulation of rates. But that didn’t go anywhere either. Thus rate regulation was left in the hands of the states. In all, 35 of them do it, with their efforts ranging from good to weak. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.truthdig.com/report/item/health_insurers_are_spending_millions_to_defeat_prop_45_20141007

[BlueCaliDem]

1. We will be casting our vote FOR Prop 45. eom