Senator Chip Shields Shines Light on Rate Review Process

Lund Report:

March 28, 2011--The debate over how to reform Oregon’s healthcare system is contentious, but everyone agrees on certain facts. Healthcare costs are rising. Insurance premiums are increasing faster than peoples’ incomes. Obtaining insurance that’s both affordable and provides adequate health coverage is nearly impossible for the average Oregonian. And nobody seems to understand how the insurance rate review process really works.

Sen. Chip Shields (D-Portland) wants to change this by shining light on the rate review process and giving consumers a voice through public hearings where insurance companies must justify their rate requests.

“This is too big of an issue to have happen behind closed doors,” said Shields in an interview with The Lund Report earlier this month.

As someone who’s started two small ventures and runs the business side of his wife’s primary care practice, Shields has seen firsthand “how exponential increases in premiums are just socking small businesses in the gut.

“We’ve got to have small businesses engaged in this process, and bring it out into the sunlight to hold [insurance companies] accountable,” Shields added.

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