{"id":407410,"date":"2010-03-09T08:28:29","date_gmt":"2010-03-09T13:28:29","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/health\/2010\/03\/09\/obama-takes-case-against-health-insurers-on-the-road\/"},"modified":"2010-03-09T08:28:29","modified_gmt":"2010-03-09T13:28:29","slug":"obama-takes-case-against-health-insurers-on-the-road","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/407410","title":{"rendered":"Obama Takes Case Against Health Insurers on the Road"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/media\/HealthReformLogo_D_2009.jpg\" alt=\"logo\" align=\"right\"\/>President Obama was back on the campaign trail Monday, using his election-style oratory to stump for a health-care overhaul that still awaits an uncertain fate in Congress.<\/p>\n<p>As is the case routinely these days, the president took aim at health insurers. He lambasted them 22 times in a speech to a college audience near Philadelphia, according to the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.washingtonpost.com\/wp-dyn\/content\/article\/2010\/03\/08\/AR2010030801703.html?hpid=topnews\" >Washington Post<\/a>. &#8220;How much higher do premiums have to rise until we do something about it,&#8221; Obama said in the speech punchline.<\/p>\n<p>HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius yesterday also sent off a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.hhs.gov\/news\/press\/2010pres\/03\/20100308a.html\" >letter<\/a> to officials of big health insurers calling for them to publicly justify their proposed hikes in insurance premiums. This follows the in-person grilling the execs got in Washington last week. Here&#8217;s more from the <a href=\"http:\/\/online.wsj.com\/article\/SB10001424052748704869304575109300800922486.html?mod=WSJ_WSJ_US_News_5\" >WSJ<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>Meanwhile, part of the latest Obama overhaul proposal that is supposed to help hold down those premiums got some negative reviews this morning.  As proposed by the president, the <a href=\"http:\/\/blogs.wsj.com\/health\/?s=hira&#038;x=19&#038;y=10\" >Health Insurance Rate Authority<\/a> overseen by HHS would have the power to survey health-insurance premium increases and step in to thwart those considered excessive.<\/p>\n<p>But there could be a problem with that setup, the <a href=\"http:\/\/www.nytimes.com\/2010\/03\/09\/health\/policy\/09rates.html?ref=us\" >New York Times<\/a> reports. It notes that while federal officials are focusing on holding down premiums, state officials will have to make sure of the solvency of the insurers they regulate.<\/p>\n<p>Of course, curbing premiums doesn&#8217;t necessarily do anything to hold down the cost of providing care &#8212; the things that doctors and hospitals charge for. \u0093You can\u0092t separate the underlying solvency of companies from the rates they charge,\u0094 the Wisconsin insurance commissioner tells the NYT.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/DxCAvYjMO2pV__2kT3yZqHa3DO0\/0\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/DxCAvYjMO2pV__2kT3yZqHa3DO0\/0\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><br \/>\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/DxCAvYjMO2pV__2kT3yZqHa3DO0\/1\/da\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feedads.g.doubleclick.net\/~at\/DxCAvYjMO2pV__2kT3yZqHa3DO0\/1\/di\" border=\"0\" ismap=\"true\"><\/img><\/a><\/p>\n<div class=\"feedflare\">\n<a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?a=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:yIl2AUoC8zA\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?d=yIl2AUoC8zA\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?a=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:D7DqB2pKExk\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?i=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:D7DqB2pKExk\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?a=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:F7zBnMyn0Lo\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?i=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:F7zBnMyn0Lo\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?a=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:V_sGLiPBpWU\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?i=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:V_sGLiPBpWU\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a> <a href=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?a=caTlLGvqAxM:5dyQPDz3bSs:qj6IDK7rITs\"><img decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~ff\/wsj\/health\/feed?d=qj6IDK7rITs\" border=\"0\"><\/img><\/a>\n<\/div>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"http:\/\/feeds.feedburner.com\/~r\/wsj\/health\/feed\/~4\/caTlLGvqAxM\" height=\"1\" width=\"1\"\/><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>President Obama was back on the campaign trail Monday, using his election-style oratory to stump for a health-care overhaul that still awaits an uncertain fate in Congress. As is the case routinely these days, the president took aim at health insurers. He lambasted them 22 times in a speech to a college audience near Philadelphia, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":792,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-407410","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407410","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/792"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=407410"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/407410\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=407410"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=407410"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mereja.media\/index\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=407410"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}