Vote for the Worst Health Insurance Company of 2013

Now’s your chance to vote for the worst health insurance company of 2013! The nominees are… UnitedHealth for paying its CEO, Stephen Hemsley, $49 million last year. Moda Health for paying $40 million for naming rights to the Portland Trailblazers arena. Anthem Blue Cross for predatory premium increases even while announcing $2.7 billion in net…

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Anthem Blue Cross seeks to raise individual policyholders’ rates

By Chad Terhune for the Los Angeles Times – California’s largest for-profit health insurer, Anthem Blue Cross, is seeking to raise rates an average of 18% for more than 630,000 individual policyholders, drawing scrutiny from regulators and the ire of consumers already struggling with soaring premiums. Some Anthem customers may see rates rise as much…

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Anthem Blue Cross, again, seeks dramatic rate increases on individual policies

From Southern California Public Radio – It’s déjà vu all over again—almost a year ago exactly Anthem, the California division of Blue Cross health insurers, proposed raising rates on individual policy holders by as much as 39%. That rate increase was stalled and eventually scaled back due to mathematical inaccuracies in Anthem’s rate filings, as…

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Big health insurers to stop selling new child-only policies

Anthem Blue Cross, Aetna Inc. and others say they will make the move as soon as Thursday when parts of the new healthcare law take effect. They cite potentially huge and unexpected costs for insuring children. By Duke Helfand, Los Angeles Times – Major health insurance companies in California and other states have decided to…

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Healthcare overhaul won’t stop premium increases

The new law doesn’t prevent rate hikes such as Anthem Blue Cross’ double-digit increase last year. ‘It is a very big loophole,’ says Sen. Dianne Feinstein, who is pushing regulatory legislation. By Noam N. Levey for the LA Times – Public outrage over double-digit rate hikes for health insurance may have helped push President Obama’s…

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Insurers Set To Raise Prices, Walk Away From Consumers

By Sam Stein for the Huffington Post – The market concentration for health insurance is so monopolized in some areas that insurance companies are willing to raise prices and lose customers in an effort to improve their bottom line, a leading insurance broker told Wall Street analysts on Wednesday. In a conference call organized by…

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