More news for Anthem Blue Cross members

This past weekend Anthem BC announced that, due to public and political reactions, the anticipated 3/1/10 rate changes have been postponed for a couple of months, to 5/1/10.

Prior to an insurance carrier raising rates, CA State law says an insurer must prove that at least 70% of its income (your insurance premiums) is legitimately being spent on your medical expenses.   Once the insurance company files the actuarially prepared documents, and the data is approved by the State, then the company can raise its rates.    CA Insurance Commissioner Steve Poizner’s office approved Anthem BC’s actuarial data in November, 2009.   But that wasn’t made public.

Now, Commissioner Poizner has appointed an outside insurance actuary to review Anthem BC’s data.   Needless to say, we all know that number crunching is an art not a science, right?   Numbers can be crunched to skew one way or the other, depending on who’s doing the crunching.

I think it’s pretty safe to say that the State-appointed actuary’s review will result in completely different findings than that previously provided by Anthem BC.

So, for at least the next couple of months while the State’s review is being conducted, there will be no rate increases from Anthem BC.   I’ll be very interested to see what they ultimately do.

And one more little tidbit of clarification… as seemingly outraged as the Obama administration and HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius may be, remember that the Federal government has no jurisdiction over the states and how each state constructs and mandates its insurance laws.