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The Los Angeles Times is reporting that the Secretary of Health & Human Services (HHS), Kathleen Sebelius, is leaning on a small insurer to rescind it recent rate hike. Sebelius had said during a teleconference:
"Today we're announcing that HHS has deemed a rate hike in Pennsylvania to be unreasonable. Now in Pennsylvania, Everence Insurance Company has put in place a 12 percent increase in the small group market... [T]he rate was found to be excessive. So we're calling on the insurance company to immediately withdraw this rate and provide refunds or credits to any beneficiaries who've already paid the unreasonable amount."
Officials with the insurance company in question, Indiana-based Everence, believe the rate increase is justified and disputed the federal government's analysis. Spokeswoman Judy Martin Godshalk stated,
"We have no plans to make any changes."
The HHS's rate review was undertaken under authority granted by ObamaCare. Critics of the law have noted that the federal government's action is unnecessary and that states are better equipped to review rate increases. States have historically been responsible for regulating insurance contracts.
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