NEWS FLASH

Insurers Hike Premiums To ‘Unreasonable’ Levels In Five States, HHS Says | Health insurers have proposed “unreasonable” premium insurance hikes in five states — Alabama, Arizona, Pennsylvania, Virginia, and Wyoming — including one as high as 27.2 percent, the Department of Health and Human Services announced today. The federal government has provided grants to bolster states’ ability to review premiums as part of the Affordable Care Act, but it does not have authority to overturn the increases. “HHS determined that the rate increases were unreasonable because the insurer would be spending a low percent of premium dollars on actual medical care and quality improvements, and because the justifications were based on unreasonable assumptions,” HHS said in a press release.