“Protections must be in place to ensure that insurance companies do not take advantage of current market conditions before health reform fundamentally changes the way they do business in 2014,” Sen. Harkin said, according to the report.
Twenty-two states in the individual market and 27 states in the small group market do not require a review of premiums, according to the report.
The proposed Health Insurance Rate Authority Act, which is under review by the committee, would give the Department of Health and Human Services the authority to review any “potentially unreasonable” increases in states that lack the authority to do so, according to the report.
Read AHA News Now’s report on insurance premium regulation.
