California’s Proposition 45, which would have given the state insurance commissioner veto power over private health insurance rate hikes, was soundly defeated in the Nov. 4 election.
Newly re-elected insurance commissioner Dave Jones continues to have little say on rate increases for individual and small-business customers of the state’s health insurance providers.
Jones campaigned for Prop. 45, putting him at odds again with the management of Covered California, the state Obamacare operation. He won re-election by a solid 56 percent, as expected. Prop. 45 was rejected by just under 60 percent of voters.
The board of Covered California, which announced average rate increases of just more than 4 percent for 2015, argued (unofficially) that more state regulation would have hurt its ability to negotiate good rates for its customer base, most of which is subsidized by the government under the Affordable Care Act. Critics pointed out that those negotiations were conducted and discussed in secret, while Prop. 45 would have required public hearings for rate hikes.
Jones, who is generally supportive of Obamacare, said in his campaign materials that he had saved policyholders “more than $1.4 billion in premiums by preventing excessive rates for auto, homeowners and other property and casualty insurance.”
“Despite lacking the legal authority to require health insurers to reduce excessive premiums, Jones has reviewed health insurance rate filings and negotiated over $293 million annually in premium savings for individuals and small businesses,” the Jones campaign said.
A year ago, Jones was able to stall cancellation of some outdated insurance policies in 2014 because insurers were late in informing clients of the changes.
Jones blamed the Prop. 45 loss on massive ad spending by health insurance providers operating in the state. More than $37 million was spent by big health care on the “no” campaign, with much of the money coming from WellPoint and its Blue Cross and Blue Shield, as well as the Kaiser Foundation.
Among Prop. 45’s opponents was the editorial board of the Los Angeles Times.
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