Good news on the health-care front: On Monday the Obama administration announced that it will allocate $46 million this year to help state insurance regulators monitor rising health-insurance premiums, a crucial aspect of implementing the new health-care law. Feds will dole out individual $1 million grants to all but five states in order to help them hire experts to dissect how much insurance companies want to charge and to increase public awareness on premium hikes. The states had to apply to receive the funds, which are a part of a broader $250 million five-year plan to help states monitor premiums. According to the Department of Health and Human Services, insurance companies in many states have raised premiums with little oversight. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius said that the grants would "restore some basic fairness to the health-insurance market."
Read it at The Los Angeles Times
