Anthem recently announced that it was going to hike its rates to about 700,000 California customers on an average of 25% with some going as high as 39%. We are in a recession, you know. The executives at Anthem have families to feed and they claim the company is losing money. Anthem, if you didn't know, is a subsidiary of WellPoint who recently reported a $4.75 billion profit in the last quarter of 2009. After a public outcry, they are postponing the increase until it is further reviewed. By the way, the same things is happening here in Maine.
What people forget is that this happens every year. The insurance companies, who have us all by the balls, announce big rate hikes. The public goes wild. There is a big "investigation" by the individual state regulators and then a lower rate hike is approved. The public is happier because the big, bad managed care company didn't get that huge increase. The state regulators look like heroes. What people don't know is that this was Anthem's intent all along. They knew they would never get the amount they asked for. It is the oldest negotiating tactic in the world. The only constant is that the rates keep going up and no one is doing anything about it.
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