WellPoint Rate Increase Passes on Health-Law Fees Year Early
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WellPoint Inc.’s plan to raise the rates small employers in California pay for medical insurance was criticized as unreasonable by the state insurance commissioner, who said customers are being charged this year to cover U.S. health-law fees that won’t begin until 2014.
WellPoint’s Anthem Blue Cross unit in California is raising those rates an average of 10.6 percent, Insurance Commissioner Dave Jones said yesterday at a news conference. WellPoint sells small group policies that cover 284,000 California employees, including 54,000 whose policies will renew this month and would immediately be affected, he said.