HHS Strong Arms Insurers in Nine States

Originally published at Fox Business As health reform heads to the U.S. Supreme Court, the federal government is going full bore on insurers who hike premiums to cover health care's soaring costs, increases that ironically continue to rise in part due to health reform. The Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) late last week denied rate increases from two health insurers covering more than 42,000 Americans in nine states because they were too high, deeming them “unreasonable” premium hikes. "Thanks to the Affordable Care Act, consumers are no longer in the dark about their health insurance premiums," said HHS secretary Kathleen Sebelius in a statement Thursday. "Now, insurance companies are required to justify rate increases of 10 % or higher. It's time for these companies to immediately rescind these unreasonable rate hikes, issue refunds to consumers, or publicly explain their refusal to do so.” The nine states are Arizona, Idaho, Louisiana, Missouri, Montana, Nebraska, Virginia, Wisconsin, and Wyoming. Continue reading this article here.