Wake Up, California! Or Continue to be at the Mercy of our Health Insurance Company Overlords.
This is our last chance to make our voices heard. Our one and only chance to achieve some kind of health insurance reform in California this year is AB 52, a bill which would give the California Insurance Commissioner the ability to regulate health insurance rates.
AB 52 will either pass out of the Senate Appropriations Committee today or die. Here the the Democratic members of that committee and their phone numbers:
Senator Christine Kehoe (Chair) -- (916) 651-4039
Senator Elaine Alquist -- (916) 651-4013
Senator Ted W. Lieu -- (916) 651-4028
Senator Fran Pavley -- (916) 651-4023
Senator Curren Price -- (916) 651-4026
Senator Darrell Steinberg -- (916) 651-4006
Call and tell them each you want to see AB 52 passed out of the Senate Appropriations Committee and brought up for a vote on the Senate floor and passed.
This is the last in a series of diaries by Seneca Doane, myself and others trying to generate some grassroots phone calls to people who are supposed to be our representatives, not the representatives of California's insurance companies.
From Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones:
Dear Friends:
One of the most important bills of the year is awaiting a vote in the Senate. AB 52 (Feuer and Huffman) gives the Insurance Commissioner the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate increases before they go into effect. Due to the intense lobbying of the insurance industry, each vote has been a close one and we expect the same with the next vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The insurance industry is doing everything in its power to prevent this bill from becoming law. My office gets calls every day from Californians who cannot afford health insurance premium increases. Senators, whose votes will determine the fate of AB 52, need to hear from you.
Insurance regulators in 34 other states and the District of Columbia already have the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes. We know this approach works. Thanks to the voter approved Proposition 103, California's Insurance Commissioners have been able to reject excessive auto and homeowners' insurance rates since 1988, saving consumers and businesses tens of billions of dollars. It's well past the time to extend the same authority to reject excessive rate hikes to health insurance.
Many of you have been contacting Assemblymembers and Senators throughout the year asking them to vote for AB 52. Thanks to you, the bill passed the Assembly despite the intense lobbying efforts by the health insurance industry. Thanks to more calls and emails from supporters, AB 52 then passed through the Senate Health Committee.
We expect a vote in the Senate Appropriations Committee on Thursday, August 25th. Please start calling the Democratic members of the Senate Appropriations Committee TODAY and ask them to vote for AB 52...
Thank you for all of your help. You really are making a difference.
Dave