STF na MÃdia - MyClipp
STF na MÃdia - MyClipp
STF na MÃdia - MyClipp
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Reuters General/ - Article, Seg, 16 de Abril de 2012<br />
CLIPPING INTERNACIONAL (Supreme Court)<br />
U.S. cites Assurant unit over health<br />
premium hike<br />
WASHINGTON | Mon Apr 16, 2012 6:43pm EDT<br />
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. officials on Monday<br />
cited two health insurers for excessive premium<br />
increases, under consumer protection rules of<br />
President Barack Obama's healthcare reform law that<br />
could soon be nullified by the Supreme Court. The<br />
Department of Health and Human Services called on<br />
Assurant Inc's Time Insurance Co and Bedford Park,<br />
Illinois-based United Security Life and Health<br />
Insurance Co to either offer rebates to customers in six<br />
states or rescind premium hikes ranging up to 24<br />
percent."Assurant Health is committed to setting<br />
premium rates at a level that will allow us to continue<br />
to serve the needs of our customers. We maintain our<br />
recent rate filings are actuarially justified and<br />
appropriate," Assurant spokeswoman Susan Burkee<br />
said in a statement.United Security had no immediate<br />
comment.The recently announced rate hikes affect<br />
about 60,000 individual and small group insurance<br />
customers in Arizo<strong>na</strong>, Louisia<strong>na</strong>, Missouri, Monta<strong>na</strong>,<br />
Nebraska and Wyoming.The healthcare reform law,<br />
the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, or<br />
ACA, faces a potential make-or-break Supreme Court<br />
ruling and repeated Republican election-year calls for<br />
its repeal."These increases are unreaso<strong>na</strong>ble for<br />
enrollees of these plans," said Gary Cohen, oversight<br />
director at the health department's Center for<br />
Consumer Information and Insurance Oversight.The<br />
reform law requires insurers to justify premium<br />
increases of more than 10 percent but does not<br />
provide the government with authority to rescind those<br />
found excessive or unreaso<strong>na</strong>ble.Cohen said the rate<br />
changes also failed to meet federal standards requiring<br />
health insurers to devote at least 80 percent of higher<br />
premium revenues to healthcare services. But<br />
Assurant said its companies set their insurance rates<br />
in order to meet the requirement.The ACA, which does<br />
not come into full force until 2014, is intended mainly<br />
as a measure to extend health coverage to more than<br />
30 million uninsured Americans. But the legislation<br />
also includes a range of consumer protections and<br />
measures to improve care while reducing healthcare<br />
costs.Twenty-six states and an independent business<br />
group have asked the high court to overturn the<br />
healthcare law on grounds that it oversteps the<br />
authority of the federal government. A ruling, which<br />
could overturn the law in part or in whole, is expected<br />
by the end of June.The administration found that Time<br />
Insurance's rate hikes in five states were based on<br />
unreaso<strong>na</strong>ble assumptions by the company. Officials<br />
went further with United Security, saying a newly<br />
announced premium increase in Arizo<strong>na</strong> was<br />
unreaso<strong>na</strong>ble and that the company had not even tried<br />
to justify it.(Reporting By David Morgan; editing by<br />
Carol Bishopric)<br />
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