Blue Shield has raised rates for 27-thousand individual policyholders 12%
5:56PM Thursday
March 7, 2013
March 7, 2013
California’s insurance commissioner is pushing back against Blue Shield, which has raised rates for 27-thousand individual policyholders 12%. Aetna plans to increase its premiums for about 20-thousand small group policyholders by 11.4% in April. State Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones says both rate increases are unreasonable and unsupportable. He can rein in excessive auto insurance rates but...
Special interests have kept the legislature from giving the insurance commissioner that power. Gracee Arthur is a Malibu policyholder whose health insurance has jumped to $691 a month.
Blue Shield says it has lost tens of millions in the individual market in recent years, and expects similar losses in 2013 — but if it finds that its rates turned out to be too high, it would issue rebates.