or not, if we can stop them. If we win, instead, the California Insurance Commissioner will finally be empowered to regulate health insurance premiums the way he does auto and property/casualty premiums. Tomorrow's is for all the marbles in the Assembly. AB 52 is coming to a floor vote -- and the opponents' lies about it are swarming like flies!
Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones wants us to make some calls. His e-mail blast appears below. I say that we do what he asks. Are you in?
If you have other information about whom to target, let's hear it!
We need your help to stop excessive health insurance rate hikes.
Tomorrow (Thursday, June 2), the State Assembly will vote on Assembly Bill 52 (Feuer). Please take a moment TODAY to call your State Assemblymember and urge him or her to vote for Assembly Bill 52. (Find the name and phone number of your State Assemblymember by clicking here, and be sure to click on the "Find My District" link.)
AB 52 gives the Insurance Commissioner the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes. Health insurers have been making record profits at our expense. Year after year, health insurers continue to impose double-digit rate increases on consumers and businesses. Consequently, more and more consumers and businesses are unable to afford health insurance.
The solution is straightforward. Give me the same authority for health insurance rates that I currently have for auto and homeowners insurance. Since 1988, with the passage of Proposition 103, the Insurance Commissioner has had the authority to reject excessive rate hikes for auto, property and casualty insurance. Proposition 103 has saved consumers and businesses tens of billions of dollars in premiums. Health insurance is every bit as important as car and home insurance. Now is the time to give the Insurance Commissioner the authority to reject excessive health insurance rate hikes.
AB 52 is strongly supported by consumer, labor and business organizations, and United States Senator Dianne Feinstein, who has noted that AB 52 fills a critical, missing piece of the federal health care reform law. Over 30 other states across the nation have successfully given their insurance commissioners the authority to reject excessive rate hikes. It is time we do the same here in California.
Health insurers and HMOs are pulling out all the stops to defeat AB 52. Micheal Hiltzak of the Los Angeles Times wrote today about the scare tactics and bogus arguments these insurance companies are using to save their profits.
We need your help to overcome these powerful lobbyists. Please call today. Thank you.
When a political leader leads like this, we should be willing to follow! To the phones!
10:21 AM PT: Find your Assembly member by name or (h/t to jpmassar) by by zip code.
