Remember how WellPoint raised its insurance premiums by 40 percent in California, giving President Obama a straw man through which to plow his health care reform bill? Well, as it turns out, Obamacare does nothing to prevent such dramatic price increases. And so Senator Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, wants a federal board to impose price controls on health insurance premiums:
Sen. Diane Feinstein, a California Democrat, has introduced a bill that would empower federal regulators to approve or reject rate hikes. At the hearing, Harkin, an Iowa Democrat, told members of the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions Committee that the U.S. should enact legislation similar to Feinstein’s proposal.
“We can and should do more,” Harkin said. “If that review determines that premiums are unjustified — that insurance companies are just trying to run up profits — corrective action must be taken,” he said of the premium review proposal.
“We can and should do more,” Harkin said. “If that review determines that premiums are unjustified — that insurance companies are just trying to run up profits — corrective action must be taken,” he said of the premium review proposal.
Meanwhile, food — which is a universal human right and even more important to people’s survival than health care — is getting very expensive:
WASHINGTON (AP) — Wholesale prices rose more than expected last month as food prices surged by the most in 26 years…Food prices jumped by 2.4 percent in March, the most since January 1984. Vegetable prices soared by more than 49 percent, the most in 15 years. A cold snap wiped out much of Florida’s tomato and other vegetable crops at the beginning of this year.
By mentioning this, do I risk inspiring “Grocery Store Reform?”
