Oct 31 2011
In Maine and New Hampshire, insurance companies are challenging state regulation of rates.
Kaiser Health News: Big Insurer Fights Back In Court Against Regulation Of Profit Margin
A lawsuit challenging Maine's authority over health insurers' profit margins is drawing national attention from state regulators worried about the impact on their power to hold down rate increases. ... At issue is whether the rates approved by Maine regulators were "inadequate," according to Anthem, which saw its built-in profit margin of 3 percent stripped to zero in 2009, 0.5 percent in 2010 and 1 percent this year
(Appleby, 10/29).
New Hampshire Public Radio: Insurers Justify Higher Rates
New Hampshire has some of the highest health insurance rates in the country. The state's insurance department held its first hearing ever on some of the causes. The average policy holder saw a 14 percent rise in premiums this past year (Gotbaum, 10/28).
 This article was reprinted from kaiserhealthnews.org with permission from the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation. Kaiser Health News, an editorially independent news service, is a program of the Kaiser Family Foundation, a nonpartisan health care policy research organization unaffiliated with Kaiser Permanente.
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