The biggest applause line of Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.) got at a meeting of the Democratic Party activist last week came when she supports voice initiative to provide the power of California Insurance Commissioner to reject an increase in the level of health insurance.
Consumer advocates have decided to go the route of the voice initiative after the insurance industry friends in the legislature to block legislation last year that would do the same thing. Feinstein became California's first to sign the petition. Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones became the second. To get a measure before voters in November, supporters, led by Santa Monica-based consumer Watchdog, must collect marks half a million more hands.
In his speech before the San Diego Party faithful, Feinstein pointed out that in the first quarter of this year, the five largest health insurance–WellPoint, UnitedHealth, Aetna, CIGNA and Humana–posted a profit of $ 3.6 billion, 16 percent more than the same period the previous year. One of the ways the company is able to achieve the success of Wall Street – as much fun as it was by the UNF jacking the price policy purchased by individuals and small businesses. While most of these policyholders dig deeper into their pockets to avoid joining the 50 million Americans who do not have insurance, many others had no choice but to let them lapse of coverage.
As Feinstein noted, thousands of Californians have been forced into the ranks of the uninsured in recent years because of the price of an individual's ability to pay. He said many people in the State have received notice of an increase in the level of two times over the past year alone.
According to the California Healthcare Foundation, health insurance premiums in the country increased by 153 percent from 2002-2011, more than five times the rate of inflation to other goods and services during the same period. As a result, increasing numbers of citizens have priced out of the health insurance market.