Californians love a good ballot initiative fight. And this fall, a debate over insurance industry rate increases should go far toward feeding that lust.
Proposition 45 would give the state insurance commissioner far greater authority to review and either approve or deny request for health care coverage rate hikes. It will appear on the November ballot in California.
A poll of California voters showed that 69 percent of them support Prop. 45. According to the L.A. Times, the poll of 1,535 voters also revealed that just 16 percent of these registered voters opposed the measure, with another 15 percent saying they hadn't yet decided.
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Democrats heavily favored the measure: 75 percent of self-identifying Dems were in favor of it, compared to 58 percent from the GOP.
The way the system now works, insurers report their intended health insurance rate increases to the state. The insurance commissioner has no authority to approve, disapprove, or set a different increase, but can only can lobby them to lower the rate hikes, the Times reported.
Prop. 45 "would grant that authority to the insurance commissioner and establish a process for outside groups to challenge rate filings," the Times said.
Prop. 45 has the backing of state insurance commissioner Dave Jones and a Los Angeles-based advocacy group, Consumer Watchdog, the Times said. Insurers have already spent millions fighting the ballot measure, the newspaper reported.
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Dan Cook
Dan Cook is a journalist and communications consultant based in Portland, OR. During his journalism career he has been a reporter and editor for a variety of media companies, including American Lawyer Media, BusinessWeek, Newhouse Newspapers, Knight-Ridder, Time Inc., and Reuters. He specializes in health care and insurance related coverage for BenefitsPRO.
