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NAIC President and West Virginia Insurance Commissioner Jane Cline, along with NAIC Health and Managed Care Committee Chair, Kansas Insurance Commissioner Sandy Praeger issued a statement on the heels of President Obama’s health care summit.
“The members of the NAIC are strongly opposed to any bill in which the federal government allows insurance carriers to sell their products in our states using the regulatory rules of another state,” the statement reads. “This misguided proposal would increase premiums for those who need insurance the most and eliminate important consumer protections. It would also fragment the insurance market and expose consumers to increased fraud and abuse. This concept must be rejected and the decision whether to allow, and under what conditions to allow, interstate sales of insurance should be left up to the individual states.”
Elsewhere, NAIC was more amenable to proposals to grant the Secretary of Health and Human Services some authority over proposed health care premium increases. NAIC predicated its support on the condition that any such initiative simply establish a federal backstop to assist those state regulators who currently do not have full rate review authority under state law and that the new federal authority would not be used to overturn state determinations.
“We support this concept of a federal-state partnership, as states are in the best position to make objective, actuarially-based determinations about the appropriateness of health insurance premiums,” the statement reads. “State insurance regulators are very pleased that the President’s overall proposal emphasizes state-based reforms.”
