A Graveyard for Good Laws

Portland Mercury:

Reviewing Rate Hikes: Senate Bill 718

Senator Chip Shields, D-Portland, doesn't think it's a stretch that health insurers, when they raise premiums by more than seven percent, should have to notify their customers. He also wants regulators to explain, when approving any increase, why they ruled the way they did. The hope is to give small businesses and citizens more of a say in increases.

Shields persuaded 24 other senators to support his plan—the only one of three health insurance bills he proposed this session to clear the Senate. But in the House? The bill is languishing.

"The health insurance lobby has really shown an unwillingness to negotiate," Shields says.

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