Feds offer $51m in grants to beef up state oversight of health insurance rate hikes
By APMonday, June 7, 2010
Feds offer grants for insurance rate oversight
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is making $51 million available to states that want to beef up oversight of health insurance rate hikes.
Outrage over premium increases was a turning point in the national health care debate earlier this year, after Anthem Blue Cross proposed hikes of up to 39 percent in California. The company ultimately withdrew the plan, but not before President Barack Obama used it to help revive his stalled legislation.
The $51 million announced Monday is the first installment of a five-year, $250 million grant program created under the health care overhaul law to help state regulators challenge unreasonable rate hikes. The Health and Human Services department said states can get $1 million each this year.
