The Obama administration and insurance industry executives are continuing their battle over rate increases.
Politico: "Insurance industry executives sat down with administration officials in the White House last week to justify their rising premium costs, attributing them to increasing medical costs. But it's an answer President Barack Obama apparently wasn't buying. In his weekly Saturday address, he said insurance companies 'couldn't give me a straight answer as to why they keep arbitrarily and massively raising premiums.' ... Karen Ignagni, president of America's Health Insurance Plans, said. ... 'I don't agree with that because what we're seeing today [in premiums] reflects ... exploding costs. And for Congress to walk away, first to decry the issue of increases now and then to walk away and ... not to do something about it, not to take that opportunity, I think that's wrong'" (Frates, 3/9).